BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A new Idaho organization says it will ask voters to restore abortion access and other reproductive health care rights in the state after lawmakers let a second legislative session end without modifying strict abortion bans that have been blamed for a recent exodus of health care providers.

The arguments are scheduled for 10 a.m. EDT on Wednesday, April 24. Listen live in the player above.

“We have not been able to get a fix from our lawmakers, our politicians. We are going to seek a fix from our people,” Melanie Folwell, a spokeswoman for Idahoans United for Women and Families, said Friday morning. “The people in Idaho understand the contours of this problem.”

Idaho has several anti-abortion laws on the books, including one that makes performing abortions a crime even in medical emergencies unless they are done to save the life of the pregnant patient. The federal government has sued Idaho over the ban, contending it violates a federal law that requires hospitals to provide stabilizing care — including abortion — if a patient’s life or health is at serious risk.

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Idaho’s attorneys say the ban allows for life-saving procedures for things like ectopic pregnancies, and they contend the Biden administration is trying to create a federal “abortion loophole” at Idaho hospitals.

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in that case on Wednesday.

Idahoans United for Women and Families is fundraising and hopes to have one or more ballot initiatives ready to propose this summer in an effort to get them on the 2026 ballot, Folwell said.

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Across the country, there have been increased efforts to put abortion rights questions to voters since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and removed the nationwide right to abortion. Voters in seven states have sided with abortion rights supporters on ballot measures, and several other states have signature drives for future ballot initiatives underway.

Cynthia Dalsing, a certified nurse midwife in northern Idaho and a board member for Idahoans United for Women and Families, said her region went from offering a “premiere obstetric range of services” to becoming a maternal care desert after the four local obstetricians moved out of state.

Pregnant women in the state’s panhandle now must either travel as much as 80 miles away or leave the state entirely for obstetric care, Dalsing said. Some are delivering babies at home because of a lack of other options, she said.

Roughly one-quarter of Idaho obstetricians have stopped practicing since a near-total abortion ban took effect in August 2022, along with about half of the state’s maternal fetal medicine doctors, according to data compiled by the Idaho Physician Well-Being Action Collaborative. Three hospitals have closed their labor and delivery units.

Some physicians and businesses are warning that the abortion bans carry other ripple effects as well.

During a news conference on Thursday, Dr. Jim Souza said the reduced access to prenatal health care means some dangerous pregnancy conditions will be diagnosed later than normal. Souza, the chief physician executive at the Boise-based St. Luke’s Health System, said that could lead to increased need for intensive medical treatment for newborns or expensive medical interventions for mothers that could have been avoided with better access to obstetric care.

A coalition of groups including the U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce, Levi Strauss & Co., Yelp, Lyft and Match Group Inc. which runs dating apps like Tinder filed a friend-of-the court brief in the U.S. Supreme Court case contending that the abortion bans make it harder to recruit and retain workers and lead to increased time off of work for those who have to travel elsewhere for care.

— Rebecca Boone, Associated Press

Defense attorneys for a man charged in the deaths of four University of Idaho students can resume phone surveys of potential jurors in the case, a judge has ruled.

Bryan Kohberger faces four murder charges in connection with the November 2022 stabbing deaths of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves. A judge has entered a not guilty plea on Kohberger’s behalf, and prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty if he is convicted.

Kohberger’s defense team hired a consultant to survey potential jurors living near the university about things they might have seen, heard or read about the case. The phone survey included questions about Kohberger’s arrest, the type of car he owns, DNA evidence and a knife sheath found near one of the bodies. It also included questions about whether the person being surveyed had watched true crime-style shows about the case or other things they might have heard.

When prosecutors became aware of the survey earlier this year, they asked 2nd District Judge John Judge to order the defense team to stop, arguing that the surveys violated a broad gag order the judge had issued in the case. Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson said some of the questions could prejudice people who could be called to serve as jurors when the case goes to trial.

In a ruling issued Friday, Judge said the surveys could continue as long as the questions do not violate his gag order. Most of the questions included information already publicly available through court documents, the judge wrote in the ruling, and so did not violate the order.

Other questions about rumors people might have heard or crime documentaries they might have seen about the case were not part of the public record when the surveys began, but they have since been debated and discussed in open court – which means they, too, are now part of the public record and can be included in future surveys, Judge said.

The bodies of the four University of Idaho students were found at a rental home near campus on Nov. 13, 2022. The home has since been demolished.

Police arrested Kohberger, 29 and then a graduate student at nearby Washington State University, more than six weeks later at his parents’ home in eastern Pennsylvania, where he had gone for winter break.

Last week, a court filing revealed that Kohberger’s lawyers plan to use cellphone tower data to show he was not at the location where the murders occurred. The documents allegedly providing an alibi for Kohberger stated he “was out driving in the early morning hours of November 13, 2022; as he often did to hike and run and/or see the moon and stars. He drove throughout the area south of Pullman, Washington, west of Moscow, Idaho including Wawawai Park.”

The document said a cell site location information expert will testify that cell tower data shows “Kohberger’s mobile device was south of Pullman, Washington and west of Moscow, Idaho on November 13, 2022; that Bryan Kohberger’s mobile device did not travel east on the Moscow-Pullman Highway in the early morning hours of November 13th, and thus could not be the vehicle captured on video along the Moscow-Pullman highway near Floyd’s Cannabis shop.”

A previous affidavit stated investigators had found cell tower data from that morning which showed Kohberger’s phone in Pullman around 2:47 a.m. the night of the murders, at which point it suddenly stopped connecting to the cell network, according to “48 Hours.” It was around this time surveillance video saw his car leave his apartment, “48 Hours” reported.

Jordan Freiman contributed to this report.

Alliant Insurance Services, headquartered in Irvine, California, acquired Advanced Benefits, based in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

Founded in 1993, Advanced Benefits offers employee benefit programs, and HR and compliance services.

The entire Advanced Benefits team will join Alliant.

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