Audrey Dutton
I am a reporter for ProPublica in the Northwest, based in Idaho.
Need to Get in Touch?
I’m most interested in tips related to state and local government corruption, extremism, policies that put children in danger and systemic failures that harm Idahoans.
What I Cover
I’m drawn to stories at the nexus of health, money and government. As an Idaho journalist, I’m always looking at how the state is a laboratory for far-right conservative and “health freedom” policies. My current focus is Idaho’s coroner system and state policies that relate to child deaths.
My Background
I returned to my home state of Idaho after starting out as a reporter in Minneapolis, New York and Washington, D.C.
I spent a decade at the Idaho Statesman, investigating the health care industry, worker deaths, the criminalization of mental illness and more. My reporting there contributed to state legislation, a federal court case over public records, greater data transparency and the filing of criminal charges.
At the nonprofit Idaho Capital Sun, I covered all angles of COVID-19 and held leaders accountable for allowing health misinformation to flourish. That included a doctor, appointed to Idaho’s largest regional health board, who spread anti-vaccine misinformation. He was later disciplined by Washington’s state medical board. My work also contributed to a successful lawsuit against the Idaho lieutenant governorfor withholding records.
I’m a graduate of Columbia University’s journalism school and Hamline University. I live in Boise with my family.
This Hospital System Fought COVID, Then a Far-Right Leader. Now It’s Taking on Idaho’s Abortion Ban.
St. Luke’s, Idaho’s largest health system, was outspoken in defending its staff during a backlash against masks and vaccines. It also sued right-wing figure Ammon Bundy — and won. Now it’s backing its doctors on the abortion front.
As Idaho Pushes to Reform Its Coroner System, Counties Seek to Make It Less Transparent
A bill moving forward with bipartisan support is described as a first step to addressing problems highlighted in a state report and by ProPublica. Meanwhile, counties seek to end access to coroners’ records that were key to ProPublica’s findings.
Are Abortion Bans Across America Causing Deaths? The States That Passed Them Are Doing Little to Find Out.
The same political leaders who enacted abortion bans oversee the state committees that review maternal deaths. These committees haven’t tracked the laws’ impacts, and most haven’t finished examining cases from the year the bans went into effect.
A Timeline of Failed Efforts to Reform Idaho’s Coroner System
Idaho lawmakers have come close to instituting reforms to the state's coroner system. Every attempt has failed. Often, the reason is simple, experts told ProPublica in recent months: Nobody wants to spend money on death.
For Decades, Calls for Reform to Idaho’s Troubled Coroner System Have Gone Unanswered
Idaho’s patchwork of 44 coroner’s offices leaves grief-stricken parents without answers in their children’s deaths and creates disparities in coroners’ investigations.
An Idaho Baby’s Unexplained Death Got No Autopsy and a Scant Coroner’s Investigation. State Law Says That’s Fine.
With a lack of regulation for coroners, a child who dies unexpectedly or outside of a doctor’s care in Idaho is less likely to be autopsied than anywhere else in the United States.
What Idaho’s Republican Primary Tells Us About America’s Culture Wars
The heavily Republican state booted 15 incumbents across the party’s ideological spectrum. While the election led to net gains for hard-line members of the right, it also underscores how divided Idaho’s party remains.
After Decades of Imprisoning Patients, Idaho Approves Secure Mental Health Facility
The Idaho Legislature has approved funding for a 26-bed facility after ProPublica found that state lawmakers and officials ignored repeated warnings about the practice of locking up mentally ill patients who hadn’t been convicted of a crime.
Idaho Keeps Some Psychiatric Patients in Prison, Ignoring Decades of Warnings About the Practice
A temporary program for “dangerously mentally ill” patients has continued for five decades, despite calls from critics to provide better care. Soon, Idaho will be the only state still using prisons to house patients who face no criminal charges.
Idaho Banned Abortion. Then It Turned Down Supports for Pregnancies and Births.
Since the overturn of Roe v. Wade, the state’s GOP-led Legislature has disbanded a maternal mortality committee, failed to expand postpartum Medicaid coverage and turned down federal grants for child care.