Idaho Senate advances bill banning requiring ‘medical interventions’ in schools, businesses
Some expressed concerns measure was encroaching into the private sector
BOISE — The Idaho Senate on Wednesday evening passed a bill prohibiting businesses and schools from requiring any “medical intervention,” with some exceptions for complying with federal laws.
Sen. Dan Foreman, R-Moscow, presented Senate Bill 1023, which amended the existing “Coronavirus Stop Act” to broaden it to prohibit requiring any medical intervention, defined in the bill as any “procedure, treatment, device, drug injection, medication, or action taken to diagnose, prevent, or cure a disease or alter the biological function of a person.”
The bill impacts private and public schools from pre-K up to universities, trade schools and community colleges, as well as any business entity, and prohibits any medical intervention requirement for entry, employment or attendance.
Senators advanced the bill in a 19-14 vote Wednesday around 5 p.m. Most of the opposition centered on concerns over encroaching into the private sector.
Foreman said Wednesday that the bill had been amended to ensure that businesses could still require interventions in order to comply with federal requirements and there are exemptions for “existing traditional and accepted industry standards.”
He also said it wouldn’t impact vaccine requirements for schools, which parents may opt out of.
Sen. Jim Guthrie, R-McCammon, opposed the bill because it went “quite a bit further” than the original law prohibiting requiring COVID-19 vaccines, and that it “inserts itself in the private sector.”
“I just think this is a slippery slope to head down,” Guthrie said.
Sens. C. Scott Grow, R-Eagle, and Jim Woodward, R-Sagle, expressed similar concerns.
Foreman said he was “careful” not to impose too much in the private sector.
“I’m a minimalist when it comes to government intervention, but people do have rights, and when individual control in the private sector gets out of control we have a constitutional, moral and legal obligation to step in,” Foreman said. “And what happened during COVID was flat out wrong in a lot of cases.”
The bill had previously been sent out of committee to what’s known as the 14th order to make amendments because of concerns over the vague language around medical intervention — some questioned if hand washing with soap could be required.
The bill was primarily authored by Leslie Manookian, a Ketchum resident and leader of the Health Freedom Defense Fund — a group that successfully challenged the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s mask mandate on public transportation, in a 2022 court opinion.
SB 1023 as amended now heads to the House.
Guido covers Idaho politics for the Lewiston Tribune, Moscow-Pullman Daily News and Idaho Press of Nampa. She may be contacted at lguido@idahopress.com and can be found on Twitter @EyeOnBoiseGuido.
How they voted
Yes: Cindy Carlson-R, Dan Foreman-R, Phil Hart-R
