BOISE, ID – The so-called “Band-Aid” bill to clarify Idaho’s medical parental consent law will be sent to the Senate for more changes to address unintended barriers to newborn drug testing and exams related to investigations of abuse against children.

The Senate State Affairs Committee on Wednesday unanimously voted to send House Bill 860 to the Senate floor in the “14th Order,” which is where it may be amended.

The bill is meant to amend a law passed in 2024 that required parental consent to provide nearly every type of medical care to minors under 18, with narrow exemptions to prevent death or irreparable injury or investigate a reported crime by the parent against the child. Since it went into effect, there have been reports that it has inadvertently disrupted young people’s access to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Hotline, non-emergency first aid, medical exams related to crimes against the child, and pregnancy care when the mother is a minor.

Bill sponsor Senate President Pro Tempore Kelly Anthon, a Declo Republican, said he intended to add further clarification to the law, adding that drug testing on newborn babies may be conducted. The new bill will also change language to address issues noted by prosecutors that may limit sexual assault medical investigations under the parental consent law.

“I want this to be a good statute,” Anthon told the Sun. “No one has any interest in hurting a child. That’s a no-brainer. What we’re trying to do is make that careful balance inside a code that we are preserving the inherent right of a parent without harming a child.”

What are the amendments meant to address?

Under the current law, health care providers could not screen newborn infants for drugs or substances they were exposed to in the womb, without the consent of the parent.

In 2023, 349 infants entered foster care after testing positive for illegal substances in their systems. In 2025, there were 223 substance-affected infants who entered foster care.

Idaho Department of Health and Welfare spokesman Greg Stahl told the Sun in an email the agency “is aware of questions about how the parental consent law may affect testing practices.”

“Testing decisions are made by medical providers in accordance with state law and clinical judgment,” Stahl said.

The agency during that time frame has also placed more emphasis, and resources, on prevention services. These services may provide resources to families to keep children safely in the home, which may also have contributed to the reduction of infants entering foster care for this reason.

Toni Lawson, vice president of the Idaho Hospital Association, told the Sun she’s heard that drug screening for newborns had been impeded because of the law.

The issue was addressed in a bill Anthon sponsored last year to try and amend the parental consent law, SB 1199. That bill passed the Senate but did not advance in the House.

The other potential amendment would address the requirements in the bill for when medical exams and evidence may be collected when there’s been an alleged crime.

The issue was highlighted by the Idaho Prosecuting Attorneys Association in the public hearing in the House, the Sun previously reported. Under the bill, medical care could be given in those situations to prevent death or to “address serious bodily harm” to the child, and when “collection of such evidence is time-sensitive.”

“One of the unfortunate facts that is common to the crime of child sex abuse is that it often occurs, more often than not in fact, without physical injury that results in serious bodily harm, much less death,” said Brian Naugle, executive director of the association.

The entire Senate will vote on the proposed amendments to HB 860, and then take a separate vote on whether to pass the bill. If passed by the Senate, it will head to Gov. Brad Little for potential signature, veto or he can allow it to go into effect without his signature.

What else does HB 860 do?

The bill’s changes to the parental rights law would:

• Clarify that the law should not be interpreted to prohibit providing non-emergency first aid to a child that appears sick or injured, such as dressing a minor wound or applying a topical ointment.
• Allow treatment to address “a serious bodily harm” or prevent “serious physical illness or injury.”
• Add new requirements for receiving blanket consent for care from parents.
• Allow certain treatment and examinations related to an allegation of a crime against the child, or to collect evidence of an alleged crime when the collection is time-sensitive, such as a sexual assault case.
• Allow the 988 Crisis and Suicide Hotline to provide immediate services, and if the child is experiencing suicidal ideation, allow the hotline to do a follow-up call.
• Allow diagnosis of pregnancy, prenatal care, and peripartum care, none of which may include abortion care.

Idaho Capital Sun is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Idaho Capital Sun maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Christina Lords for questions: info@idahocapitalsun.com.