Advocacy

State of Idaho

2025 Legislative Session

• The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) guarantees certain rights for patients, including confidentiality. HIPAA means your private medical decisions, including those about your reproductive health, remain private. Idaho has signed on to one of the four legal cases challenging the right to medical privacy currently winding through the courts.
• Mifepristone. Peer-reviewed studies have repeatedly demonstrated the safety of Mifepristone, a drug frequently used to treat miscarriages, post-partum hemorrhage, Cushing’s disease, and certain ulcers. But some state and federal politicians continue pushing to limit access to the drug. (You may recall HB 137, a bill introduced last legislative session that would treat Mifepristone and Misoprostol the same way we treat highly addictive medication like oxycontin.)
• WWAMI Call to Action: Late this afternoon, the full house debated and passed HB 368, a replacement bill for HB 176. The new bill reduces the number of seats in Idaho’s WWAMI medical education program and sets up an untenable timeline for launching or expanding Idaho’s relationship with other medical schools. If we want to address the doctor shortage, we need to add to Idaho’s physician pipeline, not reduce it. Please write to your senators THIS WEEKEND and ask them to vote no on HB 368.
• Is Silence Golden? We haven’t seen or heard much about a number of concerning bills in the last few weeks including HB 137 (a bill that would reclassify Mifepristone and Misoprostol as schedule IV drugs while listing prescribers and user on Idaho’s prescription drug monitoring program) and HB 77 (a bill that would allow graduates of medical school become doctors without residency training). With just a few weeks left in the session, we’ll keep watching and let you know if they surface.
• Idaho Legislature 2025 Leadership and Committee Assignments (website)

2024 Legislative Session

• SB1329: A quick reminder, this bill requires parental consent for any medical treatment for a person under 18 years old. Having gone into effect on July 1, the stories of harm are beginning to come in. We hear you and are working to support providers with resources and community members with education on how to navigate this new landscape. We're also leading the charge on a short survey regarding the impacts of SB1329 to capture these stories for future use. Stay tuned for more this September.
• HB668: No public funds for gender transition. An injunction has not been granted; however, those currently receiving gender-affirming care should be able to access a 90-day prescription to phase off treatment. And local organization Add the Words has launched a collaboration with the Trans Youth Emergency Project connecting those in need with grants to access care across state lines.
• SB1234: Insurance now makes contraception accessible for six months at a time.
• SB1247: Allows for the temporary hold of individuals experiencing a mental health crisis to ensure their safety.
• HB633: Expands Postpartum Medicaid to twelve months, but only for existing Medicaid patients.
• HB399: A new version of the Maternal Mortality Review Committee, now housed under the Board of Medicine.