Idaho's New Anti-Abortion Law Offers Cash Bounties to Rapists' Family Members

[Nevilledog]

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Mark Joseph Stern
@mjs_DC
The sponsor of Idaho's new abortion ban, Republican Rep. Steven Harris, confirmed *on the floor of the House* that if a rapist impregnates his victim, the rapist's siblings can sue the doctor that terminates the pregnancy—and collect $20,000 each. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/03/idahos-anti-abortion-law-takes-a-page-from-texas-playbook.html… @Slate

slate.com
Idaho’s New Anti-Abortion Law Offers Cash Bounties to Rapists’ Family Members
Borrowing from Texas' playbook, lawmakers have crafted a crueler anti-abortion measure in anticipation of Roe's demise.
11:23 AM · Mar 16, 2022

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/03/idahos-anti-abortion-law-takes-a-page-from-texas-playbook.html


The slow impending death of Roe v. Wade at the hands of the Supreme Court has encouraged red states to experiment with different approaches to tormenting abortion patients. In the months since it became clear that the court planned to let Roe die this summer, states have playfully experimented with nullifying its protections.Texas kicked things off with S.B. 8 last summer, allowing random vigilantes to sue abortion providers and their “abettors” for a $10,000 bounty. Lawmakers in at least 12 other states have since proposed versions of copycat abortion bans—most of which make up for what they lack in constitutionality in sloppy drafting and cruelty.

For instance, Missouri Republicans have introduced bills that would prohibit residents from traveling out of state to terminate a pregnancy and force women to carry ectopic pregnancies that could kill them. Alabama is vigorously defending a law that allows district attorneys to cross-examine minors seeking an abortion without parental consent—and allows judges to appoint a guardian to represent the fetus in court. (The law seemed dead until January, when a conservative appeals court, emboldened by SCOTUS, took steps to revive it.) Not to be outdone, Idaho has taken a slightly different approach: On Monday, its Legislature passed a bill that effectively allows the father, siblings, grandparents, aunts, and uncles of a “preborn child” to veto an abortion. The law applies not just to minors, but to any adult seeking the procedure.

That bill, S.B. 1309, now headed to Republican Gov. Brad Little’s desk for his signature, constitutes an explicit effort to afford the biological relatives of a “preborn” fetus more rights than the person carrying it. Like Texas’ S.B. 8, the Idaho measure bans abortion when a heartbeat can be detected after six weeks, before most people know they’re pregnant. (Protesters wanted it to be triggered at fertilization, believing six weeks was too late, but they did not prevail.) Like S.B. 8, the Idaho law grants private citizens, rather than the state, the power to enforce it, so no state actor can be sued, and therefore no legal mechanism exists to challenge it in federal court. The Supreme Court blessed this workaround in December, holding that the federal judiciary cannot block an unconstitutional law that relies on private enforcement, and the Texas Supreme Court ratified it last week.

But unlike S.B. 8, the Idaho bill does not let just any random stranger sue clinics, physicians, or those who aid or abet them. Rather, it limits the pool of plaintiffs to the fetus’s family members. That includes patients, who can sue their own abortion providers up to four years after the procedure. And unlike S.B. 8, the damages start at $20,000. (As was the case in Texas, if the plaintiff wins, they collect attorneys’ fees from the defendant; whereas if the defendant prevails, they get nothing.)

*snip*

[Irish_Dem]

1. The GOP is the party of cruelty and ignorance.

[enough]

2. A rape-incentive bill. Now a rapist can bring income into his family. NT

[dflprincess]

3. I fucking hate these assholes and I hope they all die slow painful deaths

and I hope there is a hell so they can all burn in it.

Thank you for letting me vent.

[Claire Oh Nette]

4. Add the threat of the angry incel to the mix

I fear there are some dark times ahead if another DUers post on the rising threat of incel anger plays out.

Add, also, Gov. Abbott line about eliminating rape in Texas.

Margaret Atwood dystopia awaits.

[Solly Mack]

5. You know they really want to applaud the rapist as well.

[cbabe]

6. Countersue rapist blood relatives for harboring a criminal.

[rockfordfile]

7. That's messed up. law makers should be arrested for that crap.

[Demovictory9]

8. disgusting.