Idaho's Proposition 1 would restore abortion up to viability. Voters decide this November

Four states put abortion on the ballot this November: Idaho, Virginia, Nevada and Missouri. Idaho is the only state this cycle where voters could reverse an abortion ban, and its campaign has drawn little national attention or funding.

What Proposition 1 does

Proposition 1, the Reproductive Freedom and Privacy Act Initiative, asks one question: should abortion be legal in Idaho? A yes vote would create a statutory right to abortion. It would return the state to the standard in Roe v. Wade, letting lawmakers regulate abortion after viability, widely recognized as about 24 weeks of gestation.

The current law prohibits abortion at every stage of pregnancy. Its only exceptions are to save the woman's life and, in cases of rape or incest, when documented by law enforcement. There is no exception for the health of the patient or when there is little chance of having a baby who will live.

Idaho's measure is a statute. Virginia's would amend the state constitution.

The Nichols case

The campaign's most visible story is Abby Nichols. Near the end of her first trimester of a wanted pregnancy, she learned her baby had trisomy 18, a genetic anomaly. Only about 10 percent of babies born with it survive to their first birthday.

Her Idaho doctor could not end the pregnancy. After contacting providers in Colorado and Washington, Nichols and her husband flew to Seattle for the procedure.

"It made a really sad situation just absolutely cruel," Nichols said, "that I couldn't just be at home with doctors who knew me."

Her mother, Lisa Wirsching, 65, a grandmother from Meridian who says she would hardly have called herself political a year ago, now knocks on doors and collects signatures at farmers' markets. A man biking past her house once yelled "baby killer" at her over her yard sign. She ran into the street, hoping a conversation could help him understand.

A volunteer and in-state operation

The Guardian reports that 1,255 volunteers covered the state's 35 legislative districts, knocked on 66,000 doors and gathered more than 110,000 signatures, and that none were paid. Melanie Folwell, lead organizer of Idahoans United for Women and Families, says the group raised $3.5 million over 6,000 contributions, almost entirely from inside Idaho. "No one was coming to save us in Idaho," she said.

The 19th reports that the campaign only this past month drew support from a national political action committee called Government That Works, along with a $250,000 donation from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The American Civil Liberties Union, which has heavily supported abortion measures in other states, has stayed out of the Idaho campaign. Those funding and volunteer figures come from the campaign itself.

Claims about doctors

Proponents argue the ban has hollowed out obstetric care. PBS reports that in the four years since nearly all abortion care was criminalized, Idaho has lost 94 physicians who practice obstetrics and gynecology, about one in three OB-GYNs in the state, and that three hospitals have closed their maternity wards. A study cited by the 19th found the state lost more than a third of its 268 OB-GYNs between August 2022 and December 2024.

In a letter to the Idaho State Journal, Rebecca Hathaway of Pocatello wrote that half of Idaho's counties no longer have an OB-GYN and that three rural hospitals have closed labor and delivery wards. Those are her assertions in a letter, not figures from a state agency. Whether the ban is the cause is the central dispute.

The other side

State Sen. Camille Blaylock, a Republican who represents a western suburb of Boise, says the measure goes too far and that voters may not fully understand what it would do. She says claims that women are dying because of Idaho's laws are "just not true." She also says every word of the current law was deliberately debated and that opening it up invites change.

The opposing argument elsewhere is about who counts as a person. Daily Wire commentator Noah Brandt called the right to abortion in Roe "always fallacious" and wrote that more than 3,000 abortions still occur each day in America. He argues the deeper question is who is entitled to equal protection.

Breitbart makes a related case about money and permanence. It says constitutional abortion amendments are "basically irreversible" and that abortion measures since Dobbs have often been backed by groups like Planned Parenthood and the ACLU, out-of-state groups and billionaires, often outspending pro-life organizations by double or triple. That is the outlet's characterization, and it is not an Idaho-specific finding.

Idaho's measure is a statute, so the permanence argument applies less to it. The campaign says its funding is overwhelmingly local.

PBS describes the terrain as hard for supporters: Idaho is dominated by conservative and anti-abortion sentiment, and nearly 70 percent of voters backed President Trump in the last election. Voters PBS interviewed included some who plan to vote no.

The national scoreboard

Pro-abortion-rights measures have mostly won since Dobbs, according to Breitbart. Kansas voters rejected a measure in 2022 that would have stated the state constitution contains no right to abortion. Voters in California, Michigan and Vermont codified abortion into their constitutions that year, and Ohio followed in 2023.

In 2024, seven states voted in favor of pro-abortion-rights measures. Florida, South Dakota and Nebraska rejected them.

Missouri's Amendment 3 would reverse the 2024 result there. Voters narrowly approved the abortion-rights amendment that year, 51.6 percent to 48.2 percent. The new measure would repeal it and allow abortions for rape and incest (under twelve weeks' gestation), emergencies and fetal anomalies. It would also allow legislation regulating abortion, ensure parental consent for minors' abortions and prohibit gender transition procedures for minors. It bundles several issues into one vote.

Why it has been quiet

The Guardian reports that Republicans are delaying major action on abortion until after the midterms. Democrats, meanwhile, are focused on issues like affordability, with high gas prices, a war with Iran, ICE raids and a challenging job market also competing for attention.

The Guardian also notes that abortion access in ban states relies heavily on medication abortion by mail. Court cases on that issue, including one in Louisiana, are moving through the system.

If Prop 1 passes, Idaho's near-total ban gives way to viability-based rules. If it fails, the status quo holds. In either case, the Missouri and Virginia results will show how voters in different states weigh the same question.