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Idaho group says it is exploring a ballot initiative for abortion rights and reproductive care – East Idaho News

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Idaho group says it is exploring a ballot initiative for abortion rights and reproductive care – East Idaho News


BOISE (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.

“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.

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.

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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.

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.

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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.

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Idaho

Ex-Husky Cort Dennison Reportedly Joins Idaho Coaching Staff

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Ex-Husky Cort Dennison Reportedly Joins Idaho Coaching Staff


Cort Dennison, one of the University of Washington’s more decorated linebackers over the past decade and a half, has joined Thomas Ford’s new Idaho coaching staff as its defensive coordinator, according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel.

Dennison, 35, comes to the Vandals from Missouri State, where he was the defensive coordinator for one seasons for the FCS soon to be FBS program.

Considered one of college football’s rising assistant coaches and a proven recruiter, Dennison has been trying to rebuild his career since getting fired at Louisville in 2021 while serving the second of two stints with the Cardinals.

According to reports, he was involved in a domestic dispute with another Louisville athletic department employee in which all allegations against him later were withdrawn.

A Salt Lake City native, Dennison went home and worked at Utah in 2023 as a defensive quality control coach for Kyle Whittingham.

For Louisville, he joined an ACC team headed up by coach Bobby Petrino in 2014-17 and again in 2019-21 for coach Scott Satterfield, holding a variety of assignments that included co-defensive coordinator and outside linebackers coach.

Peter Sirmon, former UW linebackers coach in 2012-13 and now the California defensive coordinator, worked with Dennison as the Louisville DC in 2017.

Dennison spent the 2018 season with Oregon as its linebackers coach.

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Cort Dennison douses UW coach Steve Sarkisian with Gatorade after a 19-7 victory over Nebraska in the 2010 Holiday Bowl.

Cort Dennison douses UW coach Steve Sarkisian with Gatorade after a 19-7 victory over Nebraska in the 2010 Holiday Bowl. / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

As a player, Dennison was recruited to the UW in 2007 by Tyrone Willingham’s staff. By 2011, the 6-foot-1, 234-pound linebacker was a team captain for Steve Sarkisian, a 30-game starter and a second-team All-Pac-12 selection who topped the conference in tackles with 128.

Dennison finished with 15 tackles in his final Husky outing, a 67-56 loss in the Alamo Bowl to Baylor and Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Robert Griffin III.

For the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington





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Obituary for Betty Pearl Day at Eckersell Funeral Home

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Obituary for Betty Pearl Day at Eckersell Funeral Home


Betty P. Day, 73, of Menan, Idaho, passed away at her home on December 21, 2024. Betty was born on May 19, 1951, in Idaho Falls, Idaho, to Betty L. Bennet and Theodore C. Walker. Betty graduated from Rigby High School and married Charles L. Day on April 3, 1970.



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U of Idaho murder suspect Bryan Kohberger investigated in 2nd home invasion attack

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U of Idaho murder suspect Bryan Kohberger investigated in 2nd home invasion attack


Alleged mass-murderer Bryan Kohberger was reportedly investigated in connection with another home invasion attack that occurred not far from where he’s accused of slaying four University of Idaho students in an off-campus home. The 29-year-old suspect was arrested at his parents’ Pennsylvania home in December 2022 after four students were killed in a house where three of them had lived and a …



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