In Idaho, parents who say their faith prohibits lifesaving medical care for their children can’t be charged with child neglect or manslaughter.
asserted
faith → say → neglect
Supporters of this protection over the years have included lawmakers who voiced support for “traditional” Idaho values.
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who → include → 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for parents in Idaho to choose prayer over medical care when a child’s life was at stake, newspaper archives and historical documents show.
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archives → choose → stake
“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.
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edition → omit → statehood
The statutes included no mention of spiritual belief as a “lawful excuse.”
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statutes → include → excuse
Three years later, the state constitution explicitly put limits on Idaho’s freedom of religion.
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constitution → put → religion
It would not excuse “acts of licentiousness,” polygamy or other practices “inconsistent with morality or the peace or safety of the state.
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It → excuse → state
It wasn’t long before the law came down on members of the Followers of Christ, a faith-healing sect that arrived in Idaho in 1899 and remains active in the state.
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that → come → state
From 2015 to 2025, the sect’s congregations in Idaho experienced 15 preventable deaths of children, according to ProPublica’s reporting.
uncertain
congregations → experience → reporting
Pearl Annis was a 13-year-old girl whose parents had moved from Oklahoma to Idaho’s Magic Valley in the spring of 1915 with at least one other Followers family.
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parents → move → family
The Annises and their 13 children shared “a two-room shack,” a local newspaper reported.
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newspaper → share → shack
An officer and a doctor visited the home after neighbors voiced concern.
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neighbors → visit → concern
They found Pearl in bed, fully dressed and on the cusp of death.
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They → find → death
Her father, Lurid P. “Lewis” Annis, was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of refusing to provide medical attention.
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father → arrest → attention
Pearl was taken to the hospital, according to the news story, and died there with what today would be described as septic shock from a bowel blockage.
uncertain
what → take → blockage
The newspaper, which didn’t appear to follow up on Annis’ criminal charge, called the Followers church “a religious cult” and Pearl’s death a consequence of “religious mania.”
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death → appear → mania
News archives and historic records don’t say how many times Idaho acted on similar cases in the decades after.
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Idaho → say → decades
But one legal battle over lifesaving care drew attention in the 1960s, as sickness made its way through a Followers family in a Boise suburb.
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sickness → draw → suburb
The mother died in December 1965.
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mother → die → December
Her 4-year-old daughter died the following June.
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daughter → die → ?
Days after the girl’s death, a judge ordered the state to take custody of her 10-year-old brother under Idaho’s child protection law.
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judge → order → law
The boy was admitted to a local hospital with pneumonia, a complication of the measles.
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boy → admit → measles
He spent days in critical condition but survived.
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He → spend → condition
The judge told the father that to regain custody, he would have to be willing to give the boy medical care as the law required.
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law → tell → care
A doctor testified that without the hospitalization, the child “almost certainly would have died,” a newspaper report said.
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report → testify → hospitalization
The father’s lawyer told the judge that his sect was rooted in “faith that God will heal the sick.”
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God → tell → sick
The law in the 1960s was clear, though: a parent had a duty to protect their child’s health, no exceptions.
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parent → have → exceptions
The judge told Samuel’s father: “The law governs conduct.
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law → tell → conduct
Religion governs opinion.”
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Religion → govern → opinion
But the legal landscape was about to shift.
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landscape → shift → ?
It came with little public attention.
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It → come → attention
During a full-on rewrite of Idaho’s criminal code in 1971, the Legislature added a section that said the state could not bring endangerment charges against someone “who chooses for his child treatment by prayer or spiritual means alone.”
uncertain
who → add → prayer
Legislative records don’t make clear how the wording originated.
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wording → make → ?
The passage of another law one year later, affirming the “spiritual means” language and applying it to other crimes, has been credited to the Christian Science church, another Christian denomination with Idaho members.
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passage → affirm → members
(The Christian Science website says the church’s practice of “healing in the way Christ Jesus taught” is not “faith healing” and that members are free to choose any form of healthcare.
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members → say → healthcare
The church also supported Oregon’s full removal of its faith-healing exemption in 2011.)
Faith-healing exemptions soon became widespread nationally.
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exemptions → support → 2011
The trigger was the federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act of 1974, which set out to standardize the nation’s child welfare system by giving states grants to more effectively investigate reports of child abuse.
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which → set → abuse
The Department of Health, Education and Welfare interpreted the law as requiring states to have a faith-healing exemption to qualify for the grants — an interpretation that records from the time don’t explain.
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records → interpret → time
Most states went along, and Idaho further broadened its exemption in 1976 to not only keep faith healers from going to jail if their children died, but also to keep their children from being placed in foster care solely for lack of medical care.
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children → go → care
At the national level, the mandate lasted less than a decade.
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mandate → last → decade
…and 4 more, not listed.
