By Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Idaho Governor Brad Little signed a law that prohibits businesses and schools from requiring customers, employees, and students to get vaccines or other medical procedures.
On April 4, Little signed the Idaho Medical Freedom Act, or Senate Bill 1210.
The law states, in part, that a company “shall not refuse to provide a service, product, permit, or transportation to a person because that person has or has not received or used a medical intervention.”
It states that the school “will not permit any person to participate in, enter the campus or buildings, or engage in employment without medical intervention.” It also notes that states, counties, and local governments cannot require a person to undergo medical intervention unless required by federal law.
Medical intervention is defined in legislation as “a medical procedure, treatment, device, drug, injection, medication, or medical act performed to diagnose, prevent, or treat disease or to alter a person’s health or biological function.”
Republican Rob Beiswenger, a co-sponsor of the bill, wrote on social media platform X after the signing: “Idaho has the best health freedom laws in the country!”
Democratic state Rep. Todd Achilles was among the opponents of the bill. Speaking in the Idaho House of Representatives before the bill passed, he said that the updated legislation, despite the changes, “remains deeply flawed,” in part because the definition of medical intervention is “too broad.”
“This bill effectively ties the hands of Idaho businesses who have a responsibility to protect their customers and employees,” he said. “We’re telling them what they can and can’t do.”
Republican Little vetoed Senate Bill 1023, which contained similar language. He said that Senate Bill 1023 would “take away the freedom of parents to ensure their children stay healthy in school because it [would jeopardize] the ability of schools to send home sick students with a highly contagious disease.”
Senate Bill 1210, the bill signed into law, expanded the section related to schools, giving them the ability to prevent sick children from attending classes.
“It took some twists and turns, but the Medical Freedom Act passed the Legislature just before recess, and this time the governor has signed it into law,” the Idaho Republican Party said on Facebook.
Leslie Manookian, president and founder of the Health Freedom Defense Fund, helped lawmakers draft the legislation. She welcomed the bill’s signing.
“Medical freedom is a basic and fundamental human right, and Idaho’s Medical Freedom Act sets a powerful precedent not only for our state, but for the entire country,” he said in a statement.
