Idaho State Affairs Committee Passes 'Conscience' Bill
NewWest.Net All Headlines
March 11, 2010 12:10 PM
After two days of testimony, mostly in opposition, Idaho's House State Affairs Committee voted to pass this year's version of the conscience bill, which lets medical professionals such as nurses and pharmacists refuse to perform medical actions or fill prescriptions that could cause an abortionas well as emergency contraceptionor hasten the end of life. The bill has already passed the Senate.
This year's bill is different from last year's in several ways, such as the inclusion of the end-of-life component, which brought in other opponents such as AARP and, perhaps, made debating and voting against the bill more palatable to legislators who would not otherwise want to be perceived as being pro-abortion. In addition was the fact that the bill went through the State Affairs committees in both housesreportedly not only because the State Affairs committees are thought to be more conservative, but because of the perception that Health & Welfare committeeseach headed by womenwould be less receptive to the bill, especially after chair Senator Patti Anne Lodge, R-Huston, held the bill in her committee last year.
Lending credence to this argument, voting on the bill was split not only along partisan lines but also among gender lines: All three votes on the bill featured Republican men on one side and Democratic women on the other.
