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Senate committee advances RS31876, a proposal to replace Coronavirus Stop Act with broader 'medical intervention' restrictions
Summary
Sen. Dan Foreman presented RS31876 to replace the Coronavirus Stop Act with the 'Idaho Medical Freedom Act,' prohibiting mandatory "medical interventions" by most employers, schools and government entities; the committee approved sending the RS to print.
Sen. Dan Foreman, R‑District 6, introduced RS31876 to amend Idaho Code by replacing the existing Coronavirus Stop Act with a broader statute titled the Idaho Medical Freedom Act. Foreman said the proposal would change statutory references to “coronavirus” and related mandates to the broader term “medical intervention,” which he described as “any pharmaceutical or biological agent or product designed to alter or restrict the biological functioning of the human body.”
Foreman said the existing Coronavirus Stop Act prohibits businesses and government entities from mandating coronavirus vaccinations. The proposed Idaho Medical Freedom Act would extend those prohibitions to the more general category of medical interventions and would bar public, private and parochial schools, from requiring medical interventions as a condition of attendance, entering campus, or employment; it would likewise bar businesses from conditioning employment on a medical intervention except where federal law requires it for foreign travel. Foreman stated the bill “prohibits any state, county, or local government entity or official in Idaho shall require any person to receive or use a medical intervention” and that receipt of government benefits may not be conditioned on a medical intervention.
Foreman asked for an affirmative vote, saying the decision about “what a citizen puts into his or her body involves a personal choice that should be made free from undue outside influence or intimidation.” Sen. Wintrow said she would support sending the RS to print but raised questions about the bill’s definitions and the scope of restrictions on business entities, noting she had not had time to read the bill in full and would raise those questions during a print hearing. A motion to send RS31876 to print was made by Sen. Lenny, seconded by Sen. Zieterfeld, and approved on a voice vote.
The committee did not hold a roll‑call vote; no amendments or funding impacts were discussed during the presentation.
