Idaho Law Protects Faith Healers. It Wasn’t Always That Way.

Members of the faith-healing sect Followers of Christ bury loved ones, many of them children and infants, in Peaceful Valley Cemetery in Caldwell, Idaho Sarah A. Miller for ProPublica In Idaho, parents who say their faith prohibits lifesaving medical care for their children can’t be charged with child neglect or manslaughter. Supporters of this protection over the years have included lawmakers who voiced support for “traditional” Idaho values. But from at least the 1880s through the early 1970s, it was illegal for parents in Idaho to choose prayer over medical care when a child’s life was at stake, newspaper archives and historical documents show. “Every parent of any child who willfully omits, without lawful excuse, to furnish necessary food, clothing, shelter, or medical attendance for such child, is guilty of a misdemeanor,” reads the 1887 edition of Idaho territory statutes , published before statehood.