'End the ban:' Idaho organizers start gathering signatures for abortion rights ballot initiative
The rallying calls were familiar.
Despite dangerous pregnancy complications, women are being denied emergency abortions. Doctors are leaving the state. And politicians shouldn’t be involved in sensitive health decisions.
But one part of the pitch was new: Instead of asking state lawmakers for a fix, Idahoans can sign on to establish their own state law.
“Idaho has been living under the trigger ban for nearly three years,” Melanie Folwell, lead organizer for the group behind Idaho’s abortion rights ballot initiative, told a Boise rally on Saturday. “And we have seen — and you’ll see in the stories you hear today — that it simply does not work for Idaho. It doesn’t work for anybody. So, today is the first step we are taking to end the ban.”
The effort to collect signatures for the proposed ballot initiative comes nearly three years after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. That reversal lifted federal court protections for abortions, letting states regulate abortion — which activated trigger abortion bans in several states, including Idaho.
https://washingtonstatestandard.com/2025/07/03/end-the-ban-idaho-organizers-start-gathering-signatures-for-abortion-rights-ballot-initiative/