End Idaho's Faith-Healing Exemption to Protect Children and Their Siblings
The Issue
In Idaho, a child can die from an illness a doctor could have treated, and the state still can't step in to protect that child's brothers and sisters. Governor Brad Little and the Idaho Legislature can fix this by removing the faith-healing exemption from Idaho's child neglect laws.
Idaho law says parents who choose prayer over medicine are not neglecting their children. Because of that, police and child welfare workers usually can't act, either before a child dies or afterward, when surviving siblings may face the same danger.
A ProPublica investigation found that one family in the Followers of Christ, a faith-healing church, lost four young children, the first in 2009. Two of them died after their diabetes went untreated. Healthcare professionals who reviewed records for ProPublica counted at least 15 avoidable child deaths in the church from 2015 through 2025. Experts said most of the sibling deaths they reviewed involved conditions that simple treatments like insulin, antibiotics or oxygen could have resolved.
Every child in Idaho deserves the same protection under the law, no matter what their parents believe. Neighboring Oregon started rolling back its own exemptions in 1999. The chance of prosecution pushed more parents to get medical help when a child's life was at risk, and the state gained the power to order care for surviving children. "If you don't do anything, kids are going to die," said John Foote, a former Oregon district attorney, in ProPublica's reporting.
Ending this exemption would not stop any family from praying. It would let social workers check on brothers and sisters after a death, and let the state require lifesaving care when a child's life is in danger.
Sign the petition to tell Governor Little and Idaho lawmakers to end the faith-healing exemption now, before another family loses another child.
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The Issue
In Idaho, a child can die from an illness a doctor could have treated, and the state still can't step in to protect that child's brothers and sisters. Governor Brad Little and the Idaho Legislature can fix this by removing the faith-healing exemption from Idaho's child neglect laws.
Idaho law says parents who choose prayer over medicine are not neglecting their children. Because of that, police and child welfare workers usually can't act, either before a child dies or afterward, when surviving siblings may face the same danger.
A ProPublica investigation found that one family in the Followers of Christ, a faith-healing church, lost four young children, the first in 2009. Two of them died after their diabetes went untreated. Healthcare professionals who reviewed records for ProPublica counted at least 15 avoidable child deaths in the church from 2015 through 2025. Experts said most of the sibling deaths they reviewed involved conditions that simple treatments like insulin, antibiotics or oxygen could have resolved.
Every child in Idaho deserves the same protection under the law, no matter what their parents believe. Neighboring Oregon started rolling back its own exemptions in 1999. The chance of prosecution pushed more parents to get medical help when a child's life was at risk, and the state gained the power to order care for surviving children. "If you don't do anything, kids are going to die," said John Foote, a former Oregon district attorney, in ProPublica's reporting.
Ending this exemption would not stop any family from praying. It would let social workers check on brothers and sisters after a death, and let the state require lifesaving care when a child's life is in danger.
Sign the petition to tell Governor Little and Idaho lawmakers to end the faith-healing exemption now, before another family loses another child.
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Petition created on October 1, 2026