BOISE, Idaho — The reproductive healthcare ballot measure before Idaho voters in this general election has been a topic of intense discussion, primarily over how it would change access to abortion. But if Idaho voters approve Proposition 1, also called the Reproductive Freedom and Privacy Act, it would enshrine protections for other aspects of reproductive healthcare, including fertility treatments.

The ballot measure prevents the state from interfering with reproductive freedom and privacy and creates an explicit right to make personal decisions about reproductive healthcare, in consultation with a medical professional. The proposed legislation enumerates healthcare issues that fall under protection, including birth control, childbirth care and miscarriage management.

According to Proposition 1’s definitions, fertility treatment refers to “the treatment of infertility and related conditions, including but not limited to assisted reproductive technology and in vitro fertilization.”

There are myriad fertility treatments depending on the cause of fertility issues, and they can include medications, surgeries and procedures like intrauterine insemination and in vitro fertilization (IVF), according to the Mayo Clinic. The latter has been the subject of scrutiny from conservative lawmakers in recent years because it involves using sperm and eggs to create embryos in a lab that are later implanted in the uterus. Unused embryos are typically frozen or destroyed.

Idaho doesn’t have any laws that address fertility treatments or frozen embryos, but both topics have been the subject of recent national political discussion.

The topic of in vitro fertilization came into the national spotlight in early 2024 when the Alabama Supreme Court issued a ruling in a case about accidentally destroyed frozen embryos that declared such embryos unborn children. When Idaho state Democratic lawmakers pressed their Republican counterparts to act to protect access to IVF, dozens of Republican legislators opted instead to sign letters stating there is “no statutory obstacle” to the procedure in Idaho, according to reporting from the Idaho Capital Sun.

Also in 2024, the Idaho Republican Party changed its platform to reflect its opposition to “all actions which intentionally end an innocent human life,” including “the destruction of human embryos.”

A congressional effort to protect the procedure on a national level failed later that year with conservative lawmakers declining to move ahead with proposed legislation. Idaho Sens. Jim Risch and Mike Crapo, both Republicans, voted against the bill.

Idaho state legislators again declined to move ahead with a fertility-related bill earlier this year that would have protected access to “fertility preservation procedures” for people undergoing cancer treatments that can cause infertility.

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