Idaho’s erosion of reproductive rights will not be met with silence.
Join us in being Pro-Voice.
Mission:
The mission of The Pro-Voice Project is to inspire the people of Idaho to explore, embrace, and advocate for abortion access and reproductive rights, utilizing the power of personal story. The Pro-Voice Project initiates storytelling campaigns to promote understanding of the abortion journey and address obstacles to care, all while challenging and dismantling the negative stigma surrounding abortion within our communities, families, and individual perspectives.
Vision:
We envision a future for Idaho where emotional and legal obstacles to abortion and reproductive healthcare are eliminated, creating a safe environment for residents to freely express their views on reproductive healthcare without fear of consequences.
Why we need to be Pro-Voice
Abortion is illegal in Idaho. The “exceptions” for rape and incest only apply in the first trimester and only with a police report, while the allowance to prevent the mother's death is so vague as to not protect care providers from criminal prosecution. Idaho’s laws are among the strictest and most punitive in the nation. Doctors face a felony conviction, a minimum two years in prison, and suspension or loss of their medical license if they perform an illegal abortion. Doctors are also subject to lawsuits brought against them by private citizens. Physicians are not allowed to protect the health of the mother or terminate pregnancies with fetal abnormalities, which is at odds with all medical codes of ethics.
In such a climate, physicians are fearful to provide the basic care that women need and deserve. Women are suffering through treatable pregnancy complications. And physicians are leaving the state with no one willing to replace them. This affects all women, not just those in need of an abortion. Idaho is on its way to becoming a reproductive care desert. Patients will suffer.
Thanks to our laws, labor and delivery units are already closing. People from Sandpoint must now drive 100 miles roundtrip for perinatal care. The highway is no place to be in active labor, especially when experiencing complications.
In this way, our laws are no longer about morality, but mortality. Without available OBGYNs, women will die.
Our laws are also about shame. They are made to shame women about their decisions and their autonomy. They are made to shame doctors into not offering all care options. They are made to shame us all into silence on the topic of abortion. The experience is once again being relegated to the shadows where support is lacking and options are more dangerous.
But we will not be shamed. We will not be silenced.
Share your story, donate, become a business sponsor, stage the production in your community, or simply reach out to ask for a PVP sticker proclaiming “Idaho is cliterally the worst.”