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The University of Idaho Just Shut Down Free Speech for Its Professors
Last Friday, employees of the University of Idaho — including professors — got a curious email from the university’s general counsel with the subject line “Guidance on Abortion Laws.” The email warned employees that a 2021 Idaho law prohibits anyone receiving state funds not just from performing abortions (which, after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, are illegal in Idaho), but also from counseling anyone to have an abortion, referring anyone to an abortion provider, or “promoting abortion.” And it said that a 1972 Idaho law also could be read to ban anyone other than doctors and registered health-care providers from offering or in any way helping people procure contraception.
University employees should therefore, the email advised, avoid any situation where they might be perceived as counseling a student (or colleague, for that matter) to have an abortion — or to use contraception. In fact, the implication seemed to be, it would be better for university employees to just avoid discussions of reproductive healthcare as much as possible.
Up to that point, the email read like the kind of advice the cautious administration of a public university in a vehemently anti-abortion state might well dispense to its employees. But then came the most startling, and troubling, bit of guidance: because the 2021…
