EMILYs List Statement on Idaho’s 6-Week Copycat Abortion Ban
For Immediate Release
March 23, 2022
EMILYs List Statement on Idaho’s 6-Week Copycat Abortion Ban
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Gov. Brad Little signed into law a near-total abortion ban in Idaho (S.B. 1309). This copycat ban mimics the most restrictive abortion law in the country, Texas’ S.B. 8, by banning nearly all abortions after approximately six weeks of pregnancy and empowering private citizens to enforce it. Laphonza Butler, president of EMILYs List, released the following statement:
“EMILYs List condemns this dangerous and harmful measure to deny reproductive freedom to the people of Idaho. Time and time again, Republican lawmakers have demonstrated that rather than trust us to make our own decisions about our future and whether and if to start a family, they believe government should have control. With abortion rights at risk now more than ever, it’s time that our legislators stop these politically motivated attacks and ensure that people have equal access to abortion care no matter where they live. This will not be the last Texas S.B. 8 copycat bill that is signed into law this year, which is why we know it’s critical to elect Democratic pro-choice women to office who will fight against this dangerous agenda in state legislatures across the country.”
EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, has raised over $700 million to elect Democratic pro-choice women candidates. With a grassroots community of over five million members, EMILY's List helps Democratic women win competitive campaigns – across the country and up and down the ballot – by recruiting and training candidates, supporting and helping build strong campaigns, researching the issues that impact women and families, running nearly $50 million in independent expenditures in the last cycle alone, and turning out women voters and voters of color to the polls. Since our founding in 1985, we have helped elect the country's first woman as vice president, 159 women to the House, 26 to the Senate, 16 governors, and more than 1,300 women to state and local office. More than 40% of the candidates EMILYs List has helped elect to Congress have been women of color. After the 2016 election, more than 60,000 women reached out to EMILY's List about running for office laying the groundwork for the next decade of candidates for local, state, and national offices. In our effort to elect more women in offices across the country, we have created our Run to Win program, expanded our training program, including a Training Center online, and trained thousands of women.
