BOISE, Idaho — The University of Idaho in a memo last week warned employees against promoting abortion or services for the “prevention of conception” and recommended limits on discussions of abortion in the classroom.
In the memo sent to employees Friday, the university’s Office of General Counsel outlined guidelines for how the state’s abortion laws could impact university employees.
“In this new and evolving landscape, how these laws will be enforced remains unclear,” the memo said. “Accordingly, the university and its employees should be aware of the potential risks and penalties associated with conduct that may be perceived to violate the laws.”
According to the email, state law prohibits university employees, while doing their jobs, from promoting abortion, providing or performing an abortion, counseling in favor of abortion, referring people for abortions or providing facilities for an abortion. Employees also can’t dispense emergency contraception, contract with abortion providers or advertise or promote services for abortion, the memo said.
Employees who violate the laws could face misdemeanor or felony charges and loss of employment, it said.
Classroom discussions on issues related to abortion are only allowed when “limited to discussions and topics relevant to the class subject” and if the instructor remains neutral, the memo said. The discussions should be “approached carefully,” the email said, adding that “academic freedom is not a defense to violation of law.”
The memo also recommended the university take a “conservative approach” and not provide standard birth control. Students can still get counseling on birth control through Student Health locations run by Moscow Family Medicine.
The university can still provide condoms to help prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases but not for the purpose of birth control, the memo said.
The university guidelines come about a month after a state law took effect that bans abortion in most cases.
Under that law, anyone who performs or attempts to perform an abortion will face a felony charge. Health care professionals will have their licenses suspended. Exceptions include cases of incest or rape or if the procedure was “necessary to prevent the death” of the pregnant person.
In August, a federal judge also temporarily barred the state from enforcing the ban in emergency situations after the U.S. Department of Justice said it conflicts with the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act.
The email from the University of Idaho cites the state’s “No Public Funds for Abortion Act,” which prohibits public funds from being used “in any way” to promote, provide, perform or induce an abortion or counsel in favor of the procedure.
The university’s guidance also cites a part of Idaho code from 1972. That statute says anyone who advertises “any medicine or means” or offers their services to facilitate an abortion or the “prevention of conception” is guilty of a felony.
The section does not apply to licensed physicians or licensed registered health care providers. That statute, the memo said, is “not a model of clarity.”
The university did not directly say why it sent the guidance now. In response to questions from the Idaho Statesman, the university said it follows all Idaho laws and that the guidance was sent to employees to help them “understand the legal significance and possible actions” of laws passed by the Idaho Legislature.
“This is a challenging law for many and has real ramifications for individuals in that it calls for individual criminal prosecution,” spokesperson Jodi Walker said in an email to the Statesman.
Sections of the Idaho law — such as the portion that specifies public funds should not be used to promote abortion — are unclear, she said. But, she said, employees who are “engaging in their course of work in a manner that favors abortion” could be violating that law.
“While abortion can be discussed as a policy issue in the classroom, we highly recommend employees in charge of the classroom remain neutral or risk violating this law,” Walker said. “We support our students and employees, as well as academic freedom, but understand the need to work within the laws set out by our state.”
In response to the guidance, the White House issued a statement Tuesday that said students’ lack of access to contraception is one result of “extreme and backwards” policies.
“The situation in Idaho speaks to the unacceptable consequences of extreme abortion bans,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. “The overwhelming majority of Americans believe in the right to birth control, as well as the right to abortion, without government interference.”
Planned Parenthood and other groups have raised concerns about the broader impacts of the University of Idaho guidance.
“We always knew extremists wouldn’t stop at banning abortion; they’d target birth control next,” Rebecca Gibron, CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaii, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky, said in a statement. “The University of Idaho’s announcement is the canary in the coal mine, an early sign of the larger, coordinated effort to attack birth control access.”
Gibron called the university’s new guidance the latest example of “extremists and draconian laws threatening to strip us of all control over … reproductive health care.”
The Rev. Elizabeth Stevens of the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse, and one of the leaders of the Bans Off Our Bodies Moscow group, said she was horrified and disappointed when she saw the guidance. Stevens, who isn’t affiliated with the university, said she’s been frustrated with the university’s failure to protect students from “forced birth advocates” who have come to campus.
“The university just says they have First Amendment rights, they have First Amendment rights. And now this memo comes out and it basically takes away the First Amendment rights of employees, staff and students,” she told the Statesman.
She said she was surprised by how “draconian” the guidance was. She described it as a “gag order,” and said if she were a professor, she would be looking for a new job. The guidance, she said, could keep professors from teaching “what’s real and true.”
“It’s horrible. It feels like a dystopian kind of situation where people are being bullied into being quiet on an issue that is really going to impact lives,” she said. “People are going to die because they can’t get access to medical care that they need.”
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