Abortion-initiative group claims 106K signatures

BOISE — Organizers for Idaho’s abortion access ballot initiative say they have reached the signatures necessary to get on the November ballot. If passed, the state would loosen a near-total ban on abortion that is among the strictest in the nation.

The initiative from Idaho’s United for Women and Families has the stated mission of restoring abortion access after Idaho’s trigger ban restricted access in almost all cases following the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. 

“We believe that there is broad support in Idaho for the right to keep your family's private medical decisions between you and your doctor, not the government,” Melanie Folwell, executive director for Idahoans United for Women and Families, said. “That is what we are fighting for.”

Folwell said as of Wednesday they had gathered 106,000 signatures and counting.

With these signatures being turned in to Idaho’s 44 county clerks over the course of the initiative effort, Folwell said the group has been able to meet the threshold for 70,725 valid signatures across 20 legislative districts. The act will need a simple majority of voters to approve in order to pass.

“Criminalizing healthcare has had impacts that have been devastating to our communities,” Folwell said. “This is an opportunity to get us back to the standard we had for 50 years.”

The initiative effort was launched at the close of June last year and has utilized 1,200 volunteers since that time to gather signatures across the state.

Named the Reproductive Freedom and Privacy Act, the initiative seeks to restore Idaho’s abortion access to what it was prior to the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, which prompted Idaho’s trigger ban. The initiative allows for healthcare decisions, including abortion, to be made up to the point of fetal viability and in medical emergencies. 

Under the act, the state is allowed to regulate abortion after the point of fetal viability except in cases of medical emergency. Fetal viability is understood to be the point at which a fetus has the potential to survive outside the uterus, whether that be with or without medical support. 

According to the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists, the threshold for fetal viability is varied, but chances of survival improve from 23% at 23 weeks of gestation and up to 76% at 25 weeks of gestation — deliveries prior to 23 weeks have nearly 100% morbidity among what are few survivors.

Under Idaho’s current law, abortion is illegal outside of incidents of rape, incest and cases where the mother’s life is in danger. In cases rape or incest, a victim is required to provide a police report to the abortion provider. 

Past lawsuits against Idaho’s abortion ban have sought to expand this short list to include exceptions to protect the health of the mother and exceptions for pregnancies in which a fetus in unlikely to live but have proved unsuccessful. 

Beyond having ramifications for those seeking abortions in the state, the initiative is also seeking to change the dynamics around healthcare providers by making the healthcare provided consistent with the act to not be thesis for “professional discipline, civil liability, or criminal liability.”

Idaho statute states that even the “attempt to perform an abortion” outside of allowed exceptions is a felony and punishable by up to five years in prison, a license suspension and fines. According to a 2025 study from the Journal of the American Medical Association, 35% of Idaho’s practicing OB/GYNs left the state after the Roe decision was overturned.