The city council in Boise, Idaho approved a resolution by a 3-2 vote Tuesday to make the state capital a “sanctuary city” for the abortion industry, with a prohibition on local enforcement of the statewide ban on the procedure.
In March 2020, Idaho Republican Gov. Brad Little signed a “trigger law” which would automatically ban abortion upon Roe v. Wade‘s repeal except in cases involving rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is at risk. Last month, the high bench formally overturned the landmark decision in Roe which concocted a constitutional “right” to an abortion.
The resolution to reject the state ban passed by the Boise City Council this week reads, “Investigations for the purpose of prosecuting abortion providers will not be prioritized, and additional resources or personnel will not be assigned.”
Boise Mayor Lauren McLean called the state’s abortion ban “extreme.”
“Tonight we passed a resolution that we won’t use city resources to investigate claims of abortion,” McLean wrote in a Twitter post upon the resolution’s passage. “The extreme Idaho law erodes our residents’ rights, invades our privacy, and puts the health of many at risk. Boise won’t be a part of this.”
City funds are also now barred from being used to collect data on those who perform abortions or being used to share such data with the state or federal government.
“This policy does not apply to abortion investigations involving coercion or force used against the pregnant person,” local lawmakers wrote, erasing the word “woman” from the text.
Scott Yenor, a professor of political science at Boise State University, told The Federalist the city’s resolution undermining state law “would keep abortion effectively accessible in big portions of the state.”
“Boise is the population center of Idaho,” Yenor explained. “If abortion clinics can operate in Boise without legal penalty, nearly half of Idaho could get an abortion in less than an hour.”
The state conservative news website Action Idaho published a video chronicling the city council’s debate over its latest measure on abortion:
The Idaho state capital joins a growing list of left-wing cities passing similar measures to reject red state abortion bans put into place by Republican legislatures. According to Axios, local prosecutors in Nashville, Tennessee; DeKalb County, Georgia; Fairfax County, Virginia; and Durham County, North Carolina, “have all said abortion-related prosecutions won’t be a high priority for their departments, or they directly stated that they will not enforce state bans.”
After a draft opinion of the court ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade was leaked in May, New Orleans District Attorney Jason Rogers Williams said his office “will not shift priority from tackling shootings, rapes and carjackings to investigating the choices women make with regard to their own bodies.”
