Bill builds foundation for women's healthcare

Here we are, almost to the end of the session, in some interesting times. Senator Jim Woodward and I worked together to direct those around the state to important matters for all of us.  

On Friday, the Senate State Affairs Committee held an introductory hearing for a draft bill that Jim and I sponsored (SB1184). The bill adds clarity and builds a foundation for women’s healthcare for our medical community and most importantly for our families.  

This bill addresses not the abortion statues in place but the issues of exceptions, and fatal fetal anomalies because these anomalies can impact a woman’s life and health.    

We decided to do our own work and draft a bill to address the issue many say is the most important, clarifying the "health of the mother" exception. We enlisted a respected, senior OB/GYN physician from the Treasure Valley to help us with the actual language.  

Our state has lost over 20% of our OB/GYNS since the Dobbs decision in 2022. For 22 of the 44 Idaho counties, there are no practicing OB/GYNs available. It takes going out of state for many young families to find the closest OB/GYN care available. This care isn’t always in “network,” so the costs can be higher as well.  

About 10% of the nearly 19,000 annual Idaho pregnancies are problematic. Maternal fetal specialists get involved in the difficult situations that arise with complicated pregnancies. In the last two years, Idaho has lost MFS doctors and hasn’t been able to replace all of them.

It is widely known that our Bonner General Health labor and delivery unit closed two years ago. The BGH leaders have pointed out that the availability of medical staffing and our state abortion statutes are among the factors in their decision to close the L&D unit.  

Subsequently, we lost our OB/GYN doctors and our maternal fetal specialist. We also lost an emergency room physician, the husband of our MFS. Losing our local women’s health physicians reduces the demand for minor surgeries and pediatric care in our community as well. These losses hurt our entire healthcare system. 

Other Idaho communities have suffered similar losses. 

Since the closure, there have been several legal decisions that brought light to these same issues. Our state has defended the abortion statutes in court, claiming our physicians have the protection to let “doctors be doctors” and to practice appropriately. It’s been said, everything the doctors need to defend themselves in court is in the hundreds of pages of court pleadings and rulings. The trouble is our doctors don’t share that opinion. They have years and years of training and investment at risk (career, criminal, civil action), riding on the question of one decision based on the court’s interpretation of statutes written by legislators.  

Therein lies a basic problem. The difference is the interpretation of our statutes by our legal and medical communities, creating a “gap” that lends risk on the part of the doctors. This “gap” is harming our healthcare system and our communities. The intent of our bill is to clarify and revise the provisions of our existing statutes. We don’t believe our recommendations change the intent of Idaho statutes (pro-life). We believe the bill memorializes our current practices. Instead of hundreds of pages of court papers, this bill distills it down to less than 300 additional words in statute.   

Doctors and patients are making important lifetime decisions for families. The future health and fertility of a woman of childbearing age should be a factor in the medical decisions she makes with her family and her physician. We want our communities to be places where young families can live and grow with nearby and accessible healthcare.  

Expecting women to travel an hour (or more) to access an OB/GYN doctor or for childbirth is not the best care we can provide. If emergency transport is necessary, trips to Coeur d’Alene or Spokane take our limited EMS resources away from our area for hours, leaving fewer responders here for other emergency responses. 

We expect this bill will have a positive impact on healthcare for our community. By giving clarity to our doctors, we build a foundation of statue/policy they can depend on.  

Good policy improves decision making, empowers people and gives them the confidence they need to carry out their work. Idaho ranks last in the U.S. for doctors per capita. Better policy should help us keep our doctors and empower them to provide good care for our families and communities. It will also help to attract more medical school students and hopefully retain them once they finish their training.  

Other legislators had started work on amendments to our abortion statutes earlier this session. However, many of those efforts ran into roadblocks. Let me be clear, I am not a proponent of elective abortions. During this session we have made improvements to our foster care and adoption procedures, which are actions that help children and families while supporting pro-life values. I represent a district that I believe leans more toward pro-life and will strive to adhere to this value while supporting women’s health in our counties. 

Mark Sauter represents Bonner and Boundary counties in the Idaho Legislature in District 1A. He can be reached at msauter@house.idaho.gov.