It’s not just candidates on the ballot next Tuesday. Voters will also be presented with various ballot measures and on Tuesday, New York Times national correspondent and author Lisa Lerer teamed up with PBS’s Amanpour and Company co-host Hari Sreenivasan to advocate for the pro-abortion side in Idaho by lamenting that the abortion debate gets wrapped up “in this sort of morass of morality.”
Sreenivasan began, “You reported all across Idaho recently for a piece titled ‘When Idaho Banned Abortion, OB-GYNs Fled, the Doctors Who Stayed Are Cracking.’ What did you find and why did you want to do this story?”
Lerer began by recalling, “I had done a book on the fall of Roe v. Wade, and I was interested in, sort of, following up on that reporting and see what the impact was of these laws. As I'm sure many of your viewers know, about 20 states, the United States, now ban abortion at a standard earlier than what was set in Roe v. Wade, which was fetal viability.”
New York Times reporter/author Lisa Lerer laments "these [pro-life]laws were not really written often with a sense of science or women's health or, you know, medical advisories" and "I just think abortion exists as an issue in this sort of morass of morality and religion and… pic.twitter.com/20ODdnsjrV
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) October 28, 2026
She also mourned, “But I wondered, these laws were not really written often with a sense of science or women's health or, you know, medical advisories. And so, I was curious what the impact were of these bans beyond just abortion and abortion rights. And so, I went to Idaho because what happened in Idaho is since they had passed their ban in 2022, about a third of the OB-GYNs in that state had left or stopped practicing or retired.”
Sreenivasan then read from Lerer’s article on the subject, “You know, you write that, ‘By banning abortion, Idaho has become a more dangerous place to give birth.’ I mean, what was the intention of the law versus the actual consequence?”
Lerer began with a weird response where she tried to paint a picture of elective abortions not being that popular in Idaho before admitting they were being performed, “Well, the intention of the law, of course, was to ban abortion. You know, very few, none of the doctors I spoke with for my piece were doing elective abortions before the law. They were only doing abortions that were medically indicated, you know, that someone, their life was going to be at major risk or their future fertility or they'd have severe health consequences if they carried that pregnancy to term. There was a Planned Parenthood in Boise that was doing, sort of, elective abortions, but they were pretty much the only ones with maybe a few other exceptions.”
Reverting back to her earlier point about pro-lifers allegedly not being interested in science, Lerer decried the intrusion of morality into the abortion debate, “So, I think the intention was, of course, as all these laws intend to do, to ban abortion. I just think abortion exists as an issue in this sort of morass of morality and religion and politics. And it's become sort of disconnected from the actual thing that's about, which is that abortion is a medical procedure, whatever your feelings about it is that, it is something that involves medication or surgery. And I think that disconnect is what led to this outcome in Idaho.”
Later in the interview, Lerer would try to argue that Idaho’s law has had negative repercussions for women who need miscarriage care, but, once again, she also admitted that the actual text of the law would not have prohibited the care. Four years after Dobbs, reporters like Lerer should be able to point to lawsuits or criminal charges against doctors who provide treatment for ectopic pregnancies or miscarriages to bolster their arguments, but they can’t. They can only repeatedly claim doctors feel a certain way. Meanwhile, Lerer clearly hasn’t thought through the consequences of divorcing science from morality.
Here is a transcript for the October 27 show:
PBS Amanpour and Company
10/27/2026
HARI SREENIVASAN: Lisa Lehr, thanks so much for joining us. You reported all across Idaho recently for a piece titled "When Idaho Banned Abortion, OB-GYNs Fled, the Doctors Who Stayed Are Cracking." What did you find and why did you want to do this story?
LISA LERER: Well, I had done a book on the fall of Roe v. Wade, and I was interested in, sort of, following up on that reporting and see what the impact was of these laws. As I'm sure many of your viewers know, about 20 states, the United States, now ban abortion at a standard earlier than what was set in Roe v. Wade, which was fetal viability.
But I wondered, these laws were not really written often with a sense of science or women's health or, you know, medical advisories. And so, I was curious what the impact were of these bans beyond just abortion and abortion rights. And so, I went to Idaho because what happened in Idaho is since they had passed their ban in 2022, about a third of the OB-GYNs in that state had left or stopped practicing or retired.
SREENIVASAN: You know, you write that, “By banning abortion, Idaho has become a more dangerous place to give birth.” I mean, what was the intention of the law versus the actual consequence?
LERER: Well, the intention of the law, of course, was to ban abortion. You know, very few, none of the doctors I spoke with for my piece were doing elective abortions before the law. They were only doing abortions that were medically indicated, you know, that someone, their life was going to be at major risk or their future fertility or they'd have severe health consequences if they carried that pregnancy to term. There was a Planned Parenthood in Boise that was doing, sort of, elective abortions, but they were pretty much the only ones with maybe a few other exceptions.
So, I think the intention was, of course, as all these laws intend to do, to ban abortion. I just think abortion exists as an issue in this sort of morass of morality and religion and politics. And it's become sort of disconnected from the actual thing that's about, which is that abortion is a medical procedure, whatever your feelings about it is that, it is something that involves medication or surgery. And I think that disconnect is what led to this outcome in Idaho.
