Employees at the University of Idaho have been warned by the school not to provide birth control or endorse abortion to their students if they wish to keep their jobs.
The university sent a memo to employees on Friday, asking them not to promote, counsel in favor of, or advertise abortion services. The memo was sent in the wake of Idaho’s near-total abortion ban, which went into effect at the end of last month.
“This is a challenging law for many and has real ramifications for individuals in that it calls for individual criminal prosecution,” the university told the Washington Examiner in a statement. “This guidance was sent to help our employees understand the legal significance and possible actions of this new law passed by the Idaho Legislature. The law (IC §18-8705) states that no public funds ‘shall be used in any way to … promote abortion.'”
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The school claimed the law does not specify what promoting abortion entails, but that it is clear that university employees are paid with public funds, and that employees “engaging in their course of work in a manner that favors abortion could be deemed as promoting abortion.”
While the university supports its students and its staff, the school understands that it needs “to work within the laws set out by our state,” the memo said.
The memo warns employees that anyone who violates this new policy can face misdemeanor or felony convictions, mandatory loss of state employment, and a loss of ever getting employed by the state in the future. However, the memo also details exceptions to its policy, such as directing students to information on abortion outside the university.
The nonprofit organization Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression has issued a letter to the university and its president, arguing that the rule imposes a limitation on “academic speech and instruction” protected by the First Amendment.
“The memo’s guidance notwithstanding, the First Amendment binds public universities, requiring U of I to ensure any policies implicating student and faculty expression comport with its constitutional obligations,” the letter read.
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In June, the Supreme Court overturned the precedent of Roe v. Wade, turning the question of regulating abortions to the states.
