Mother, Son Charged with "Kidnapping" for Helping Idaho Minor Access Abortion

[justaprogressive]

Reproductive justice advocates allege that police in Idaho have made the first “abortion trafficking” arrest after an Idaho teenager and his mother were charged with “kidnapping” for bringing the teen’s girlfriend out of state for an abortion.

The 15-year-old who had an out-of-state abortion, identified in court records as K.B., was living in Idaho with her boyfriend and his mother when she became pregnant. In May, the same month Idaho’s “abortion trafficking” law went into effect, her boyfriend and his mother brought her to Oregon to obtain abortion medication.

K.B.’s mother reported to the police that K.B. was taken out of state to obtain an abortion without her consent, sparking a police investigation. Police charged K.B.’s boyfriend and his mother with multiple charges, including felony kidnapping. While the two were not specifically charged under the abortion trafficking law, reproductive justice activist and writer Jessica Valenti noted that “prosecutors used the exact language of the trafficking law in the kidnapping charge.”

The abortion trafficking law is currently being challenged in court, which may be why the prosecutors in this case decided to charge the two with felony kidnapping, instead of under the abortion trafficking law. Advocates believe that these charges are being used as a “test case” for the controversial statute.

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