It may sound elementary at a time when all we hear is the chorus, “A woman’s right to choose….” But all around us, women and girls are facing multiple levels of pressure and intimidation to abort their babies.

The Elliot Institute reports that up to 64% of post-abortive women confess that they were forced into abortion.

Some of that coercion takes the form of emotional blackmail. Some threats involve a husband or boyfriend abandoning the woman if she doesn’t kill the child. There have been national stories about parents kidnapping their teenage daughters and carrying them into an abortuary; or employers promising job termination if the woman’s pregnancy doesn’t end.

Oddly enough, only 5 states have laws which attempt to protect women from coercion. Idaho is not one of them.

On Thursday, the House Health & Welfare voted to print a bill which seeks to correct that serious hole in Idaho law. Led by Rep. Bob Nonini in the House and Sen. Monty Pearce in the Idaho Senate, a group of seven legislators are working with Idaho Chooses Life to enact the “Idaho Anti-Coercion Act”.

It would, for the first time, make it clear that it is a crime to coerce a woman or girl into getting an abortion.

We believe that most legislators will come to see this protection as necessary and long overdue. But we will need your help to get the legislation passed. Please make time in your schedule over the next week to contact your legislator.

Idaho’s daughters need to be protected. They need to be free to choose life for their vulnerable babies.