Amends and repeals existing law to remove provisions regarding abortion.
House Bill 360 would substantially revise Idaho’s abortion-related statutes by repealing several existing provisions and removing abortion-specific references from others. The bill repeals Section 18-622, the Defense of Life Act, and Section 18-623, relating to abortion trafficking, and repeals Chapter 88 of Title 18, the Fetal Heartbeat Preborn Child Protection Act. It also amends Section 18-608 to preserve a narrower framework for lawful abortions in hospitals, physician offices, or clinics meeting specified conditions, including hospital-only requirements for second-trimester abortions and hospital-based, physician-confirmed exceptions for certain third-trimester abortions.
In addition to repeals, the bill revises state restrictions on the use of public funds, tuition, and school-based health services so that abortion-related prohibitions remain in place but are cleaned up to remove references to the repealed abortion provisions. It continues to bar public funds from being used to provide, perform, promote, counsel for, or refer for abortion, with limited exceptions such as life-endangering conditions, hospitals, and certain Medicaid-related transactions. It also maintains prohibitions on using tuition and fees at public higher education institutions for abortion-related purposes and on abortion-related services in school-based health clinics and sex education settings, while preserving the emergency contraception exception tied to rape.
The bill’s overall impact on Idaho law would be to eliminate several of the state’s more specific abortion criminal and fetal-heartbeat provisions while leaving in place a narrower set of restrictions on abortion funding and school-related activities. It would change the legal landscape for providers, public institutions, and state or local agencies by removing some abortion-specific offenses and regulatory language, but it would not create broad abortion access protections. The act is declared an emergency measure and would take effect on July 1, 2025.
Because no committee transcripts or recorded votes were provided, there is no documented debate or voting pattern to assess. Based on the bill text and caption, the measure appears to be a significant abortion-law cleanup and repeal bill, likely to draw strong interest from both abortion-rights and abortion-restriction advocates. The main point of contention is likely the repeal of the Defense of Life Act, the abortion trafficking law, and the fetal heartbeat act, versus the retention of funding and institutional restrictions on abortion-related activity.
The bill would repeal major portions of Idaho’s abortion code, including the Defense of Life Act, abortion trafficking provisions, and the Fetal Heartbeat Preborn Child Protection Act, while amending related statutes to remove references to those repealed laws. It would preserve a limited abortion framework in Section 18-608 and continue restrictions on public funding, tuition use, and school-based abortion-related services. Affected parties include abortion providers, hospitals, public agencies, public schools, public colleges and universities, and recipients of state or local funds.
No committee discussion or vote history was provided, so there is no direct record of legislative sentiment. From the bill’s structure, the measure appears to reflect a mixed approach: it repeals some of Idaho’s most restrictive abortion laws while retaining significant limits on public funding and school-based abortion-related activity. That suggests the bill may have been intended as a compromise or cleanup measure, but it would likely be viewed positively by abortion-rights supporters and negatively by abortion-restriction supporters.
The most notable points of contention are the repeal of the Defense of Life Act, the abortion trafficking statute, and the fetal heartbeat law, all of which are central to Idaho’s abortion restrictions. Supporters of abortion access would likely favor removing those provisions, while opponents would likely object to eliminating criminal and fetal-heartbeat protections. At the same time, the bill preserves bans on public funding and school-based abortion services, which may limit support from those seeking broader abortion access protections and may be seen by abortion-rights advocates as leaving significant restrictions in place.