Idaho Abortion Coercion Bill: What’s the Strategy?

By Sharon Fisher, 3-10-08

Is the Idaho House of Representatives deliberately avoiding voting on an abortion bill in order to get through the session faster?

H464, sponsored by Representative Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d’Alene, makes it a felony to “coerce” or attempt to coerce, physically or otherwise, a woman into having an abortion. It is not clear how often this happens and how much of a problem this really is, or whether it is another example of the “nibbling to death by ducks” strategy of anti-abortion advocates—they don’t have to make it illegal, just have to make it impossible to get, in this case by waving the threat of a felony charge against people giving women information about abortion.

The bill has been on the third reading calendar, which is where bills that are being voted on go, since March 3rd, and for several days there has been a unanimous consent request to push it to the next day, for no given reason. Representative Nonini has been present in the House and has even led other bills, so there’s nothing wrong with his health or availability.

Representative Phyllis King, D-Boise, proposed a bill to make it a felony to coerce a woman into *not*having an abortion, but in her February 29th letter to constituents, she indicated she had changed her mind. “This raised my hackles at first, but in the long run I will vote ‘no’ and move on to more important issues,” she said. She also criticized Nonini, who chairs the House education committee, for “spending time on an abortion bill instead of really important issues, like safety issues in school facilities, background checks for day care providers, pre-K education, [and] [H]ead [S]tart ...”

Is there a quiet agreement to let the bill die in the interests of ending the session earlier?