An initiative on Idaho’s ballot this November would make it legal for a child to be killed at eight months’ gestation. President of Idaho Family Policy Center Blaine Conzatti believes this is too extreme for the historically red state. 

If passed, Idaho Proposition 1, the Reproductive Freedom and Privacy Act Initiative, would allow any woman to “make personal decisions about reproductive healthcare that directly impacts the person’s own body,” which is a euphemism for destroying her pregnancy.

Experts say it’s also the most extreme pro-abortion ballot initiative or constitutional amendment in any state this election cycle. 

“We have two laws here in Idaho right now protecting pre-born life in the womb,” explained Conzatti during a Wednesday appearance on “Washington Watch.” “The first is our heartbeat law, which creates civil liability for abortions that are performed after about 18 days post-conception. The other law is a Defense of Life Act that creates criminal penalties for abortions performed after about 14 days of pregnancy. So we protect life almost up to the point of fertilization here in Idaho.” 

Conzatti asserted that most Idahoans are pro-life with overwhelming support from lawmakers, making it further confusing for such an extreme measure to be on the ballot this November. 

“Pro-choice, pro-abortion opponents are always raising alarm bells that women can’t receive life-saving care and other care in medical emergencies. And that’s just simply not true,” Conzatti explained. “Our laws are really clear. We talk with physicians all the time who say they have all the clarity that they need. We have a state Supreme Court case that interprets our laws and provides really clear guidelines for when a physician can intervene. Here in Idaho, we’re going to protect both the mother and the baby.”

Idaho has seen a 99.7% reduction in the statewide abortion rate, according to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. Proposition 1 could radically change that. 

“It would redefine fetal viability,” Conzatti underscored. “A woman would be able to get an elective abortion for any reason at all, up to [at] eight months of pregnancy. It would also gut all sorts of protections that we currently have on the books here in Idaho for parents [as well as] patient protections for the pregnant woman, like ensuring that a physician performs the abortion. That requirement would be gone under Proposition 1. And it would also open the door for taxpayer funding of abortion once again here in Idaho, which, of course, most Idaho voters do not want. So, this is really, really extreme.”

Conzatti pointed out that Idaho Democrats played dirty to advertise the proposition. “The Democrats and the pro-abortionists knew they couldn’t win in a fair fight. And so, what they did is they unlawfully colluded together to obtain federally required cheaper candidate ad rates in order to blow our advertisements out of the water and gain an unfair competitive advantage over us.”

“They laundered money around between several groups, all in violation of our Idaho state campaign finance law and possibly in violation of federal law in order to trick television stations into thinking that they were running candidate advertisements. And in so doing,” he continued, “they were able to get as much as a 90% discount on their advertising rates to just buy up all the airwaves in the last few days of the campaign.”

Idaho Family Policy Center filed a lawsuit against the Idaho Democratic Party for their alleged illegal campaigning strategies. “We fully anticipate that the judge will enter a preliminary injunction blocking them from running those ads at those discounted rates in the last few days of the campaign,” Conzatti said. 

“Pro-abortionists who are behind this ballot initiative are longtime Democratic Party operatives who have worked on statewide state legislative campaigns for the most progressive state legislators, for the most progressive statewide elected officers,” he continued. 

“They know what it takes to mislead voters, and they’re doing it all the time leading up to Election Day, just a week from today. So, the big thing that they’re trying to deceive Idaho voters into thinking that this does not eliminate our parental consent law. That is simply untrue. It really does eliminate our parental consent law. It really does eliminate the physician-only requirement for performing abortions. It eliminates really almost every women’s health protection that we have regulating abortions.”