University of Idaho staff told not to offer condoms to students for birth control

Condoms ought to solely be offered to college students to stop sexually transmitted infections, not as contraception, in accordance with a memo despatched by the College of Idaho to employees final week.

The memo, first obtained by the Idaho Press and issued to all staff on Friday, laid out the college’s reproductive insurance policies following the enactment of Idaho’s abortion regulation, which bans the process in practically all circumstances.

The memo additional warned staff that they may not communicate in help of abortion and will “proceed cautiously at any time {that a} dialogue strikes within the route of reproductive well being”, reported the Hill.

The recommendation on contraception was included due to the regulation’s lack of readability on “prevention of conception”, the college stated, in accordance with the Idaho Capital Solar.

Employees have been prohibited from recommending or referring abortion to a scholar. Staff have additionally been advised to not challenge emergency contraception – the so-called morning after tablet, also called Plan B – besides in circumstances of rape.

Customary contraception capsules will reportedly nonetheless be distributed at scholar well being facilities, that are administered by Moscow Household Well being, not the college itself. The college doesn’t present abortion providers.

It warned that any employees recommending abortion to college students risked a felony conviction and might be banned from any future state employment.

“Since violation is taken into account a felony, we’re advising a conservative method right here,” learn the memo.

Idaho’s near-total ban on abortion solely has exceptions for rape or when an individual’s life is in peril. It went into impact on 25 August and confronted a lawsuit from the US Division of Justice, which argued it may forestall docs from utilizing the process in medical emergencies.

The college stated it was issuing its suggestions that employees keep impartial on abortion to keep away from punishment due to one other regulation handed in 2021, the No Public Funds for Abortion Act, which bars state staff and officers from recommending abortions.

“It is a difficult regulation for a lot of and has actual ramifications for people in that it requires particular person prison prosecution. This steerage was despatched to assist our staff perceive the authorized significance and attainable actions of this new regulation handed by the Idaho legislature,” Jodi Walker, the chief director of communications on the college, advised the Washington Publish.

Not all universities in anti-abortion states are following swimsuit, nevertheless. Vanderbilt College in Tennessee, the place a near-total ban on abortion went into impact in August, has stated it would proceed offering contraception strategies and emergency contraception to college students, reported the Publish.