Some select paragraphs:
Across Idaho, doctors are leaving, looking for states where politics don’t dictate how they practice medicine. The consequences of Idaho’s anti-choice laws hit Sandpoint fast and hard, hollowing out medical care for women within months. For years, the town had a maternity ward that delivered as many as 350 babies every year – now it has nothing. The OB-GYN ward shut down this spring and doctors have been fleeing the state in a steady stream, seeking shelter in places where their work doesn’t put them at risk of criminal charges or big lawsuits.
It’s become a gamble, getting pregnant and giving birth in a place that no longer has a maternity unit or any obstetricians. Sandpoint is small, fewer than 10,000 people, but it’s been a medical hub for a rural region of 50,000 in north Idaho, Montana and Washington.
Idaho is one of several states that had trigger laws: immediate abortion restrictions that went into effect when Roe v Wade fell a year ago. In August of 2022, the state enacted a near-total ban on abortion with exceptions only if the mother’s life is in danger, or in the case of rape and incest. Those instances require a police report to be filed. The state also adopted what it called an “abortion trafficking” ban, which bars taking minors to other states for abortion care. Family members can sue doctors for thousands of dollars if they perform an abortion, and doctors may face criminal fines and even prison time.
Idaho also became the only state in the country to stop tracking maternal mortality rates. Activists say it’s like they don’t want anyone to know how deadly their decisions might be.
States aren’t homogenous, not even red states. I am sure many of the people affected voted against those politicians and laws but were in the minority. It’s a really cold and callous attitude to ignore their plight just because their neighbor thinks they should be punished.
The religious powers also want this to be a nationwide policy and they fund many Republicans in Congress. This can easily go from state bans to a nationwide ban now that we have a majority of Supreme Court justices opposed to abortion rights. All they need is another year with a big red wave.
In the last 3 elections a super majority vote for candidates that supported restrictive abortion policies.
https://www.cnn.com/election/2022/results/idaho https://www.cnn.com/election/2020/results/state/idaho https://www.politico.com/election-results/2018/idaho/
You may think it’s cold to say that they made choices that are having negative consequences that they have to deal with. I say it’s realistic that 40 years of states like Idaho pushing further right means they have to deal with it on their own terms. It is, after all, what they voted for.
Interestingly, from an outsider perspective, I could make the same argument about the whole of USA. YOU made this happen.
Yes and no. Yes Trump won the election in 2016 but he lost both popular votes in 2016 & 2020. The supreme court is not voted on and at least one seat should have been a liberal justice. Nationally the US is dictated by the minority opinion at the moment with how our government is structured. Saying Idaho is representative of the US as a whole is kind of like saying Bulgaria is representative of the EU as a whole. They’ve got their opinions and their places of influence but I don’t think anyone would say they are at the top of the pecking order.
How is saying every person in Idaho is representative for the whole of Idaho any better, though?
I mean, that is how a representative democracy works. I’m a two party system you get 50%+1 and you win. Getting more than 52-53% of the vote is very hard. Idaho is voting 60-70% + for this. Obviously individuals are individual but what is your argument? That there is nothing to be said about voting blocks because you have to consider each individual persons thoughts on a vacuum? Either you’re being obtuse or naive.
That it’s not only cold (and awful) but also wrong to say this is the consequence everyone in Idaho should have to suffer just because majority of people there voted like that.
Cold, sure. Awful, for these women yes. But this is explicitly the consequences of the vote of the overwhelming majority of this states population. In no way have I said that women deserve sub standard health care. I have said this is the exact outcome that the voting population was warned of, ie consequences. You have been talking about morality, but just my morality not the morality of the situation. So again, what’s your argument? That we shouldn’t call this the consequences of the state of idaho voting for this? That the state shouldn’t be allowed to enact or enforce these laws? That doctors should be forced to stay?what are you trying to add to the conversation other than to say that my comment is mean because not everyone wanted to ban abortion and prosecute doctors?
Why do I need something else to add other than your comment is mean and awful to those who didn’t vote like that, can’t vote yet and still have to suffer the consequences?
What does it add to the conversation that you feel Schadenfreude for those people who now have to deal with that?