Planned Parenthood has reportedly launched six billboards in Northern Idaho as part of an effort to inform people they can obtain abortions out-of-state.
According to KOIN, the billboards and local ads referred people to a website for locating the nearest facility offering abortion.
KREM 2 provided a sample photo for how the billboards would look. It read: “ABORTION IS LEGAL IN OREGON AND WASHINGTON.”
It also contains the link to Planned Parenthood’s website and asserts, “Extreme politicians in Idaho don’t want you to know this. Planned Parenthood does.”
Earlier this year, Idaho controversially passed an anti-trafficking bill that prohibits taking minors out of state for abortions without parental consent. It’s one of the most pro-life states in the country, implementing a near-total ban after the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs.
That appears to have prompted an increase in Idahoans seeking abortion in Washington state. Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho reportedly saw a 56% increase in the number of abortion seekers coming from Idaho. Planned Parenthood of Great Northwest CEO Rebecca Gibron also said Oregon had seen an uptick in Idaho patients, according to KREM.
“We’re not going to turn our backs on Idahoans in the same way that far-right extreme lawmakers have done,” Gibron said, according to the outlet.
Planned Parenthood’s campaign came after the abortion giant sued over a letter in which Attorney General Raúl Labrador told a state legislator that Idaho law prohibited medical professionals in the state from referring residents for out-of-state abortions.
Labrador, according to CNN, later withdrew his letter and said it had been “mischaracterized as law enforcement guidance sent out publicly to local prosecutors and others.”
“It was not a guidance document, nor was it ever published by the Office of the Attorney General,” he said.
His letter, which was sent to Rep. Brent Crane, noted that Idaho’s law prohibits the assistance of abortion:
Idaho law prohibits an Idaho medical provider from either referring a woman across state lines to access abortion services or prescribing abortion pills for the woman to pick up across state lines. Idaho law requires the suspension of a health care professional’s license when he or she ‘assists in performing or attempting to perform an abortion.’ … The plain meaning of assist is to give support or aid. An Idaho health care professional who refers a woman across state lines to an abortion provider or who prescribes abortion pills for the woman across state lines has given support or aid to the woman in performing or attempting to perform an abortion and thus has violated the statute.
Labrador was one of 19 Republican attorneys general who signed a letter telling the Biden administration it was illegal to restrict states’ access to medical records of patients who crossed state lines to obtain abortions.
