UPDATE:
On Monday, Idaho senators chose not to override Gov. Brad Little’s veto on a so-called “medical freedom bill.” Instead, they decided to introduce a new, but only slightly changed proposal.
The latest version of the “Idaho Medical Freedom Act,” or Senate Bill 1210, is largely the same as its vetoed cousin.
Private daycares would be exempt from these requirements under the new bill.
However, other private businesses, schools and government entities could not require a student, customer or employee to treat any of their illnesses.
ORIGINAL STORY:
Gov. Brad Little issued his first veto of the 2025 legislative session – the bill would’ve banned governments and private businesses alike from refusing to serve anyone who refuses to treat their medical illnesses.
Think oozing wounds, pink eye and lice.
These are just some of the visible conditions teachers, government workers and private business owners would’ve had to ignore under the proposal.
In a letter explaining his decision, he said “medical freedom is an Idaho value.” However, Little wrote the bill removes parents’ freedom to keep their kids healthy at school.
“We are proud that Idaho already boasts the freest laws in the country when it comes to personal medical decisions, and we need to keep it that way,” he said.
“Parents already have enough to worry about while raising their children.”
Little went on to list several bills he’s signed into law and executive policies he’s made during his tenure to support “medical freedom.”
Those include banning government and school mask mandates, allowing medical providers to refuse to perform treatments that violate their religious or moral beliefs and rejecting childhood vaccine reporting for public school kids.
Specifically the bill would’ve prevented government entities and private businesses to require a person receive any particular “medical treatment” used to “diagnose, prevent, or cure a disease or alter the health or biological function of a person.”
Rep. Lucas Cayler (R-Caldwell), who supported the bill, said during the House floor debate the argument that this policy would supercharge the spread of communicable diseases is “negligible.”
“Because it’s a part of life. It’s always been a part of life. It’s what makes us human,” Cayler said on March 19. “We have immune systems and those immune systems, by and large, regulate.”
Idaho lawmakers can still override the veto with two-thirds support in both the House and Senate.
House Republicans barely met that benchmark for the original vote, but the Senate would need to get five more votes to reject the veto.
Copyright 2025 Boise State Public Radio
