A Republican-backed bill to criminalize the “sale, transfer, distribution or other unlawful disposition” of fetal tissue derived from abortion care is headed to the desk of Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter (R).

The GOP measure is based on a series of widely discredited videos published by an anti-choice front group known as the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), the leaders of which have been indicted on felony and misdemeanor charges related to the group’s smear campaign against Planned Parenthood.

The “Unborn Infants Dignity Act,” SB 1404, outlaws research performed on “bodily remains or embryonic stem cells” derived from abortion care, including scientific work conducted by Idaho colleges and universities that receive public money.

Violators could face criminal penalties as high as five years in prison, a fine up to $10,000, or both.

SB 1404 passed in the state senate last week in a party-line vote, and cleared the house in a 54-14 vote, with Rep. Fred Wood (R-Burley), a doctor, joining Democratic lawmakers in opposition.

Democratic members of the House State Affairs Committee on Thursday staged a boycott of the legislation, refusing to attend a committee meeting where the anti-choice bill was set to be heard, as the Spokesman-Review reported.

Four Democrats said in a statement provided to Rewire:

As the Democratic members of the House State Affairs Committee, we collectively chose to abstain from participating in today’s hearing of a bill because it is beneath our dignity, it is beneath the dignity of our constituents, and it is not worthy of our time or attention.

The bill before the committee today is a “fraud.” It is fraudulent to use our time here to run special interest bills that are bad public policy. This bill, like many others introduced this session, is designed to inflame a small constituency that these politicians count on to vote for them. That’s campaigning on the public dime.

The anti-choice group Idaho Chooses Life supports the law, which is copycat legislation that the national anti-choice group Americans United for Life is advancing at the state level in GOP strongholds.

Introducing the legislation last week in the house, Rep. Brent Crane (R-Nampa) referenced the surreptitiously recorded videos from CMP that purported to show Planned Parenthood officials participating in the illegal sale of fetal tissue.

Twenty states have cleared Planned Parenthood of wrongdoing or declined to investigate, as has Idaho’s governor, who rejected a request by nearly 30 Republican lawmakers to investigate the health-care organization.

Planned Parenthood operates clinics in Boise, Meridian, and Twin Falls, but does not offer a fetal tissue donation program in the state, said Hannah Brass Greer, Idaho legislative director of Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest and Hawaii, who spoke with Rewire in a phone interview.

“It’s clear that the proponents of this bill are part of the same group of people … that have been behind the attacks nationwide against Planned Parenthood,” Brass Greer said. “Even though Planned Parenthood has done nothing wrong … they continue to move forward because no matter what, they oppose safe and legal abortion.”

As Rewire has reported, “[f]ederal law regulates the use of fetal tissue for research or transplant, and as far as federal statutes go, this one is pretty clear. It’s a crime for anyone to buy or sell fetal tissue for profit. It is not a crime to donate and transfer that tissue for research or transplant into another organism or tissue.”

“Donating any tissue or organ for research or transplant is an expensive process,” Rewire Vice President of Law and the Courts Jessica Mason Pieklo added, “which is why the [federal] law specifically states those involved may make and receive ‘reasonable payments associated with the transportation, implantation, processing, preservation, quality control, or storage of human fetal tissue.’”