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Idaho GOP Passes Bill to Ban Abortions at 6 Weeks, Criminalize Gender-Affirming Surgery

HeadlineMar 15, 2022

Idaho’s Republican-led Legislature has approved an anti-abortion bill modeled after Texas’s first-of-its-kind law that effectively bans abortions after about six weeks. The Idaho law allows family members of a pregnant person — as well as a potential father — to sue a doctor who performs an abortion. Those who succeed could collect $20,000, plus legal fees, from the abortion provider. Under the law, a rapist could not file such a lawsuit, but a rapist’s relatives could sue.

This comes just days after Idaho lawmakers approved a bill that would ban puberty-blocking treatment, hormone therapy and gender-affirming surgery for trans children. It would also make it a felony to take trans youth out of the state to receive that care elsewhere. Those found guilty face up to life in prison.

Meanwhile, Mississippi Republican Governor Tate Reeves signed a bill Monday limiting how race can be discussed in classrooms. The bill garnered support only from white Republicans; all of Mississippi’s Black legislators opposed it and staged a walkout in January to protest it.

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