Latest news with #IdahoMedicalFreedomAct
Yahoo
30-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Idaho Gov. Brad Little vetoes bill to ban medical requirements in business, schools, government
Idaho Gov. Brad Little gives his annual State of the State address on Jan. 6, 2025, on the House floor at the Statehouse in Boise. (Pat Sutphin for the Idaho Capital Sun) Gov. Brad Little vetoed a bill to ban Idaho businesses, local and state governments, private and public schools, and colleges and universities from requiring medical interventions, such as vaccines, treatment or medication. Senate Bill 1023, called the Idaho Medical Freedom Act, would have banned businesses and any Idaho governments — local, county or state — from requiring medical interventions for employment, admission to venues, transportation, or providing products or services. The bill would've also extended to schools in Idaho — private or public — and colleges, universities and trade schools, blocking them from requiring medical interventions for school attendance, employment, or entrance into campus or school buildings. Little vetoed the bill Saturday — the first bill the Idaho governor has vetoed this year. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX 'Medical freedom is an Idaho value. However, this bill removes parents' freedom to ensure their children stay healthy at school because it jeopardizes the ability of schools to send home sick students with highly contagious conditions including measles, lice, ringworm, pink eye, strep throat, stomach viruses, the flu, and other illnesses that disrupt families' lives,' Little wrote in a transmittal letter explaining his veto. This year, Little signed into law a bill to let Idaho doctors and health care entities refuse care that violates their beliefs. He cited that bill as one of several examples of his support of 'true medical freedom in Idaho.' 'We are proud that Idaho already boasts the freest laws in the country when it comes to personal medical decisions, and we need to keep it that way,' Little wrote. 'Parents already have enough to worry about while raising their children. They do not need government imposing more limitations on keeping children safe and healthy from contagious illnesses at school.' In 2022, Little vetoed a bill that would ban Idaho businesses from requiring COVID vaccines. 'I have been consistent in stating my belief that businesses should be left to make decisions about the management of their operations and employees with limited interference from government,' Little wrote in his transmittal letter explaining his veto. The new broader medical intervention requirement ban the governor vetoed would have expanded on a previous Idaho law banning COVID vaccine requirements, which Little signed in 2023, despite its similarities to one he vetoed a year earlier, the Idaho Statesman reported. This year's broader bill — amended twice — was cosponsored by Sen. Dan Foreman, R-Moscow, and Rep. Robert Beiswenger, R-Horseshoe Bend. Health Freedom Defense Fund President and Founder Leslie Manookian wrote the bill. In a column published Thursday, Idaho Republican Party Chairwoman Dorothy Moon urged people to ask Little to sign the bill. She referenced support for the bill by Dr. Ryan Cole, an Idaho pathologist whose Washington medical license has been restricted after state regulators found he shared COVID disinformation and broke medical standards by virtually prescribing ivermectin to COVID patients, against medical practice, the Idaho Capital Sun previously reported. 'In 2020 and 2021, it felt like the whole world had gone mad,' Moon wrote. 'Many of us feared for the future of freedom in America. But this is 2025, and much has changed since those dark days. The American people sent Donald Trump back to the White House with a mandate to set things right. He, in turn, appointed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead Health & Human Services. Like Dr. Cole, RFK Jr. has long been skeptical of Big Pharma's rhetoric and the government overreach that enabled it.' Idaho Freedom Action, the lobbying arm of the Idaho Freedom Foundation, in an email alert Saturday said the governor 'betrayed Idaho,' arguing Little 'chose special interests' over 'the interests of Idaho's families.' The group asked supporters to send form emails to Idaho state lawmakers requesting they override the governor's veto. Overriding a gubernatorial veto requires two-thirds support in each chamber of the Idaho Legislature. The bill narrowly passed the Senate on a 19-14 vote, and the House passage barely cleared that two-third threshold on a 47-23 vote. Under the bill, medical interventions include 'a procedure, treatment, device, drug injection, medication, or action taken to diagnose, prevent, or cure a disease or alter the health or biological function of a person.' Business medical intervention mandates for employment would still be allowed in a few excepted circumstances, including in certain federal travel scenarios if jobs require entry into facilities that require medical interventions, or if required by federal law. The bill would also exempt medical intervention bans in situations where employers require 'personal protection equipment, items, or clothing … based on existing traditional and accepted industry standards or federal law.' But the bill says COVID-era requirements, such as for masks or vaccines, are not exempt from the ban. The bill would allow the Idaho attorney general or county prosecuting attorneys to enforce the law through injunctive relief, which are essentially civil court actions issued in lawsuits. veto SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Idaho senators send bill to ban business medical intervention requirements for amendments
Idaho state Sen. Dan Foreman, R-Moscow, talks with a colleague before legislative action begins on the Senate floor on Jan. 7, 2025, at the State Capitol Building in Boise. (Pat Sutphin for the Idaho Capital Sun) The Idaho Senate State Affairs Committee on Wednesday sent a bill for amendments that would expand a ban on medical mandates by private business and state and local governments. The amending order allows wide amendments to bills. State lawmakers on the committee made the move for Senate Bill 1023, by Sen. Dan Foreman, R-Moscow, after business association representatives expressed concern over the bill's wide-ranging definition for medical interventions. Some worried it could even affect hand sanitation requirements. 'This bill goes too far, by mandating businesses submit to the whims of their employees. We do not understand the language. And we believe that while it was thought out, we believe that perhaps there was some haste in how it was written,' Alex LaBeau, president of the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry, told the committee. Foreman's bill, called the 'Idaho Medical Freedom Act,' would modify an Idaho law passed in 2023 that banned business and state and local governments from requiring COVID-19 vaccines as a condition of employment or to provide products or services, including entrance to venues. In addition to proposing to extend the ban to schools, the bill would broaden the law to include medical interventions, which it defines as 'any pharmaceutical or biological agent or product designed to alter or restrict the biological functioning of the body.' Foreman only briefly spoke about his bill. Health Freedom Defense Fund President and Founder Leslie Manookian, who Foreman said wrote the bill, spoke at length about the need for the bill. 'The right to make one's own medical decisions is not granted by the government. … It is a sacred, God-given inalienable right — woven into the very fabric of our constitutional republic,' she told lawmakers. 'It's amazing to me that we have veered so far from that original intention that we even have to talk about this today.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Before voting to send the bill for amendments, several Republican senators on the committee said they agreed with the bill's intent but worried its language needed to be refined. 'These are God-given rights to our personal freedoms,' said Idaho Senate President Pro Tem Kelly Anton, R-Rupert, who added that lawmakers will look at the bill with the business community to see if it can be clarified. All but two senators on the Senate State Affairs Committee supported a motion to send the bill to the amending order, where any lawmaker can propose amendments. Committee chair Jim Guthrie, R-McCammon, and Idaho Senate Assistant Minority Leader James Ruchti, D-Pocatello, voted against the motion. In the meeting, Ruchti, the only Democrat on the committee, said the legislation 'seems like it's putting us in a race to bring back the diseases our grandparents worked so hard to eliminate.' After the meeting, Guthrie told the Idaho Capital Sun he'd prefer a new bill be redrafted instead of sending it to the amending order. 'I don't disagree with the intent and some of the premise of the bill. But sometimes — because the 14th order is a very different process — I think there's enough fatal flaws in the bill that to try to fix it in the 14th order is problematic,' he told the Sun. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
