This State Used to Go After Faith Healers. Not Anymore

Idaho's reputation as a haven for faith-healing parents is, historically speaking, a relatively recent development. ProPublica reports that for nearly a century—from territorial days in the 1880s through the beginning of the 1970s—Idaho law required parents to secure medical care for sick children, with no carve-out for religious beliefs. Early statutes criminalized the refusal of caregivers to provide "medical attendance" to children, in addition to things like food and shelter, and the state constitution explicitly limited religious freedom when it endangered public safety. Courts enforced that standard: One judge in the 1960s, ordering hospital care for a critically ill boy from a Followers of Christ family, told his father, "The law governs conduct. Religion governs opinion."

That framework quietly shifted in the early 1970s. As lawmakers overhauled the criminal code in 1971, Idaho added language shielding parents who rely solely on prayer or "spiritual means" from endangerment charges, later broadening the protection and tying it to decisions on whether to place children in foster care. A federal child-abuse law and guidance from the agency then in charge of health and education services helped spread similar exemptions nationwide, though many states later backed away. Idaho didn't. Today, the state still protects faith-healing parents, even after a series of preventable child deaths. Read the full piece here for the history and legal twists behind Idaho's exemption.