Sandpoint rallies for reproductive rights

By Soncirey Mitchell
Reader Staff

In recognition of International Women’s Day, women of Bonner and Boundary counties will gather on Friday, March 8 outside Bonner General Health for the Pro-Voice Project’s “Rally for Repro.” The demonstration will run from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., featuring a series of educational and inspiring speeches about women’s rights and health care in Idaho, as well as messages of support for the understaffed hospital.

“If we want Idaho to take women’s health seriously, we need to raise our voices. We need to be seen and heard, both as patients and voters,” Pro-Voice founder Jen Jackson Quintano told the Reader in an email. “Our elected officials ignore 50% of the population at their own peril. They need to know how we are being impacted by their disregard for women’s lives and health, and that we won’t sit silently and bear the consequences.”

From left to right: Emma and Raven Stanford, Rebecca Holland, Christine Moon and Sylvie Quintano. Photo by Arleen Lothian.

Speakers include activist and counselor Makayla Sundquist, faith leader Stan Norman and Reclaim Idaho representative Catherine Brenner, plus many more locals who’ve experienced the reproductive health care crisis in North Idaho firsthand.

The U.S. Supreme Court established a new precedent in June 2022 with the ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned women’s protected right to abortions established by Roe v Wade. Idaho has since made performing an abortion a felony punishable by two to five years in prison and the suspension of the provider’s medical license.

“If we support our local health care providers, helping them not to burn out during these difficult times, while also holding legislators accountable for their ill-conceived, anti-women policy decisions, we will start to see incremental change,” Quintano wrote.

According to the PVP, the hostility toward reproductive health care has led 58 obstetricians — including all four of BGH’s OB-GYNs — to leave Idaho in the past 15 months. Meanwhile, institutions like BGH have made national headlines with the suspension of their labor and delivery services due to Idaho’s “legal and political climate.” West Valley Medical Center in Caldwell — which provides services to the second most populous county in the state — will close its labor and delivery services facility on April 1.

Residents of Bonner and Boundary counties are currently forced to drive an hour or more, depending on where they live, to reach labor and delivery services in Kootenai County, increasing the risk of complications for high-risk pregnancies and low-income families. This loss of gynecological care affects all women, pregnant or otherwise, as their basic health care needs can no longer be met.

“This is a life or death issue,” Quintano stated in a recent PVP news release. “And not just for individuals who risk all kinds of problems by having to travel for care, but it’s life or death for our community. How can a town remain vibrant if it can’t bring babies into the world? If it can’t support its women?”