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Idaho Abortion Rights rally at the Idaho Capitol and downtown Boise, Idaho, August 3, 2022.
Boise Weekly, Tracy Bringhurst. August 3, 2022.
Soaring temperatures didn't keep close to 500 people from attending a pro-abortion rights rally at the Capitol on Wednesday. The rally, hosted by the grassroots organization Idaho Abortion Rights had seven speakers; the organization's founders, activists and three candidates running for seats in the House of Representatives.
At the rally, one of the founders of Idaho Abortion Rights, Bessie Yeley, said the event was geared toward getting voters access to the candidates running for the upcoming election who support reproductive rights and emphasized the importance of voting.
Yeley was the first speaker and opened by saying she is a veteran of the U.S. Army. "I joined in a time of war to protect American freedoms," she said. "Today I am faced with my reproductive freedoms being taken away by a country that I served. I have to worry about if the law will leave me to die in an Idaho hospital if I need a lifesaving abortion, leaving my three children motherless. This isn't the free America that our service members fight and die for."
The rally was scheduled for the same day that the Idaho Supreme Court began hearing arguments over two lawsuits regarding Idaho's anti-abortion laws. The court did not specify when a decision would be made.
Idaho's trigger law also made the news nationally on Tuesday when the United States Justice Department filed a federal lawsuit against the state.
The rally ended with co-founder of Idaho Abortion Rights, Kimra Luna, speaking.
“A few weeks ago the Idaho Republican GOP voted and decided to run on a platform where their goal is to make laws that will not protect the life of the pregnant person," said Luna, "that a so-called pre-born life is more important that the pregnant person's life. Brad Little wants to see us dead. The Republican party wants us dead. They don't care if we die. And worse, is that the Republicans in Idaho do not listen to what medical professionals are telling them about how abortion bans harm our community."