It's official: Idaho voters will decide whether to reinstate abortion access

Nicole Blanchard, The Idaho Statesman on Jul 13, 2026

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Idaho voters will decide in November whether to restore widespread access to abortion after years of some of the country’s most restrictive abortion laws, election officials confirmed Monday.

Idahoans United for Women and Families said Monday that a ballot initiative it created to carve out reproductive healthcare protections, including the right to abortion, met criteria to be on voters’ ballots for the general election on Nov. 3.

Voters will see the Reproductive Freedom and Privacy Act, which says it will establish “a right to make private reproductive health care decisions” on their ballots. The proposal would prevent the state from prohibiting or interfering with reproductive healthcare, including contraception, fertility treatment, miscarriage management and childbirth care.

It would also legalize abortion up to the point of fetal viability — usually considered to be about 24 weeks’ gestation — or in medical emergencies.

For the proposed legislation to become law, 51% or more of voters must vote to approve it.

The initiative was led by Idahoans United for Women and Families, a nonprofit that formed after the U.S. Supreme Court essentially overturned Roe v. Wade in the Dobbs decision and gave states the right to make laws on abortion. The decision triggered laws in Idaho that made abortion illegal in most circumstances, except in cases of ectopic or molar pregnancy, reported cases of rape or incest or when a pregnant patient’s life is at risk.

Idahoans United organizers said in a news release Monday that they submitted more than 110,000 signatures to the Secretary of State’s Office earlier this month in what they called “the largest signature tally ever gathered for a qualified initiative in state history.”

By law, ballot initiatives must have signatures from 6% of the total registered voters at the time of the last general election, which is about 70,700 signatures. Those signatures must be distributed from around the state and include at least 6% of voters in 18 of the state’s 35 legislative districts.

Idahoans United said volunteers gathered signatures from 6% of voters in 20 legislative districts.

Organizers announced in April that they were “confident” that, after months of gathering signatures from supporters, they had met the requirements necessary to have the initiative in front of voters in November.

“Never underestimate what a dedicated army of mothers, fathers, grandparents, doctors, nurses, friends and neighbors can accomplish,” Melanie Folwell, lead organizer of Idahoans United, said in a news release. “Thousands of Idahoans stepped up because they believe freedom, privacy and the right to make personal medical decisions belong to families, not politicians.”

Folwell said the initiative saw broad support from people of all political stripes. Idahoans United conducted polling ahead of crafting the ballot measure language to determine what sort of legislation Idaho voters would support. Its polling found about 60% of Idaho voters would support the act that voters will see in November, and a Boise State University poll found similar results.

Seventeen states have had abortion-related ballot measures since Roe was overturned, according to reporting from KFF, a health policy and journalism outlet. Similar citizen-initiated ballot measures in South Dakota, Florida and Nebraska failed in recent years, while efforts in Arizona, Missouri, Montana and several other states were successful.

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