Coeur d'Alene march marks Roe v. Wade overturn anniversary

Close to 40 people marched through downtown Coeur d’Alene on Saturday morning, walking from the North Idaho College campus to Sixth and Sherman and back as the Kootenai County Women’s March marked the fourth anniversary of the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Signs carried through the route focused on reproductive freedom and the belief that women should be able to defend and expand their ability to make personal and medical decisions.

The crowd drew honks and cheers from passersby as Laura Tenneson, who began organizing the Coeur d’Alene marches in 2020, served as the keynote speaker. Tenneson said the anniversary gave the march a sharper purpose: she and other organizers want reproductive freedom for women in Idaho and across the country.

The gathering landed in a state where abortion access has been sharply curtailed since Idaho began enforcing its trigger ban on Aug. 25, 2022. The law criminalizes abortion with limited exceptions, and a doctor or other provider who performs or assists an abortion can face two to five years in prison. The U.S. Supreme Court allowed Idaho to enforce the ban in January 2024 while litigation continued over emergency medical situations, and the state tightened its rape and incest exceptions in 2023 so they apply only in the first trimester.

Local organizers have kept returning to the street corner at Sixth and Sherman. Tenneson said representatives from the Reproductive Freedom and Privacy Act and Idahoans United for Women and Families attended last year’s march, and she later spent the rest of the year gathering signatures for the initiative.

The ballot measure would create a statutory right to reproductive freedom and privacy, covering abortion, childbirth care, contraception, fertility treatment, miscarriage care and prenatal, pregnancy and postpartum care. By spring 2026, organizers had collected enough signatures in 19 legislative districts, and by early May they had submitted about 106,000 signatures, enough to qualify for the November 2026 ballot if the names are validated.

Among the people in Saturday’s march were Megan Kunz and Jennifer Reiter, who said they joined because they support women’s bodily autonomy and believe Idaho’s abortion laws have been harmful.