(Oregon Right to Life) — A group of activists is distributing birth control and abortion access resources to women in Idaho and other pro-life states, according to a report by the Associated Press.
The group, Idaho Abortion Rights, is an all-volunteer organization founded in 2022, the same year the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The Boise-based group describes itself as “a mutual aid collective” comprised of “individuals from diverse backgrounds who are committed to supporting Idahoans in reproductive health access and abortion justice and abortion rights.”
Idaho was among a group of states that immediately moved to enforce pro-life trigger laws or implement new pro-life laws in the wake of the Supreme Court’s landmark Dobbs v. Jackson ruling. Current Idaho law protects nearly all unborn babies with narrow exceptions – but pro-abortion activists like the volunteers with Idaho Abortion Rights are working to change that.
Members of the group say they distribute “emergency contraceptives, condoms, [and] pregnancy tests” and also facilitate “access to abortion pills by covering the costs… with support from our out-of-state providers.”
The volunteers are not medical professionals.
“This is the underground,” pro-abortion activist Jerad Martindale told the AP. Martindale helps pack and distribute boxes filled with items, including birth control and information about how to obtain an abortion. Another activist, Kimra Luna, is a “full-spectrum doula” who helps women either give birth or procure abortions. Luna also gives advice to abortion-seeking women through an encrypted app and directs them to obtain abortion pills online.
Luna told the AP she even traveled to Colorado once with a woman whose fetus died at 28 weeks gestation. It’s unclear why the woman traveled out of state since procedures to deal with miscarriages are not abortions and are not prohibited under Idaho law.
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Stanton Healthcare, an international pro-life group that seeks to “replace abortion businesses” and provide “quality, coercion-free care, and compassionate alternatives to abortion,” expressed serious concerns about the pro-abortion group’s activities.
“This so-called ‘underground’ group represents an appalling and dangerous prospect for women, and of course, for preborn babies,” the organization said in an email highlighting the story.
Stanton Healthcare pointed to a part of the AP report in which activist Kimra Luna responded to an encrypted message from a woman who had taken abortion pills and was experiencing bleeding. The woman told Luna she was worried about having to tell a doctor what had caused the bleeding.
According to the AP, Luna responded by telling her, “[b]leeding doesn’t mean you need to go in,” and that “[s]ome people bleed on and off for a month.”
For Stanton Healthcare, the interaction raised a serious red flag.
“Ms. Luna offered medical advice…while admitting to KTVB she is not a medical professional, nor is anyone who is connected to her ‘underground’ group,” the pro-life group observed.
Samantha Doty, Stanton Healthcare physician assistant and director of clinical services, suggested in remarks to KTVB Channel 7 that Idaho Abortion Rights should give more thought to the implications of what they are doing.
“My question, if they truly care about women’s healthcare, is: ‘Are they thinking about all of the things that can come of an abortion if there’s not some screening beforehand?’” Doty said.
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Pro-life groups, including the Charlotte Lozier Institute, have argued that the increased popularity of chemical abortions, along with the recent loosening of federal guardrails around abortion drug prescription under the Biden administration, have created unique dangers for women.
Risks and complications can include a “lack of necessary ultrasounds to confirm gestational age and rule out ectopic pregnancy, inability to confirm that a woman is not being coerced to obtain an abortion,” and even “abandonment of women to deal with the medical and psychological repercussions of abortion by herself with no follow-up,” the Charlotte Lozier Institute pointed out.
Today, chemical abortions account for well over half of all U.S. abortions.
Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee, expressed disappointment in the actions of the pro-abortion volunteers in remarks to the AP. She said she’s unsure whether anything could be done to prevent the group from doing what it’s doing but emphasized that support exists to help young women in unexpected pregnancies get the resources they need and keep their babies.
“That is definitely the better way to go,” she said.
Oregon Right to Life believes in the sanctity of all human life from the moment of conception to natural death. Abortion ends the life of a genetically distinct, growing human being. We oppose abortion at any point of gestation. Read this and all of our position statements here.
