As the battle over the law plays out in court, the Supreme Court ruled Friday that Idaho can enforce its abortion ban, including in medical emergencies.
The court announced it would hear arguments in April and put on hold a lower court ruling that blocked the law in a medical emergency. The lower court's ruling comes in response to a lawsuit filed by the Biden administration.
The challenge to the Idaho law marks the high court's second major abortion case since the 2022 overturn of Roe v. Wade, which allowed states to enact their own laws regarding abortion access. . In the coming months, the court will also hear a challenge to the Food and Drug Administration's rules on access to the abortion drug mifepristone.
In an Idaho lawsuit over hospital emergencies, the administration argued that hospitals receiving Medicare funds are not allowed by federal law to provide emergency medical care, including abortions, in some cases, regardless of state laws that prohibit abortions. He claimed that he was required to do so.
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As the battle over the law plays out in court, the Supreme Court ruled Friday that Idaho can enforce its abortion ban, including in medical emergencies. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Martin)
Two weeks after Roe v. Wade was overturned, the administration released guidance on federal law (emergency medical care and labor law). A month later, the administration sued the state of Idaho.
U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill of Idaho sided with the administration. A judge in another Texas case sided with the state.
President Biden released a statement Friday night dissenting from the Supreme Court's decision, saying his administration “continues to defend women's ability to access emergency care under federal law.”
Under Idaho law, anyone who performs or assists a woman in obtaining an abortion is a crime punishable by up to five years in prison.
The administration says the Emergency Medical Labor Act would allow health care providers, even with state abortion restrictions, to treat emergency medical conditions such as severe bleeding, preeclampsia, and certain pregnancy-related infections. They argue that it mandates that abortions must be performed on emergency patients. Such responses are prohibited.
“For certain medical emergencies, abortion therapy is a necessary stabilizing treatment,” Attorney General Elizabeth Preloger said in an administrative filing with the Supreme Court.
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The high court announced it would hear arguments in April and put on hold a lower court ruling that blocked the law in a medical emergency. (AP Photo/Patrick Semanski)
The state claimed the administration was abusing a law meant to prevent hospitals from neglecting patients and imposing a “federal abortion mandate” on states. In a brief, Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador told the court that the Emergency Medical Labor Act “doesn't say anything about abortion.”
A federal appeals court in New Orleans reached the same conclusion as Labrador in a ruling Tuesday. A three-judge panel rules that the administration cannot use the Emergency Medical Labor Act to require Texas hospitals to perform abortions on women whose lives are in danger due to their pregnancies. was lowered.
The Court of Appeals upheld a decision by U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendricks, who said that adopting the government's position would allow doctors to “treat a fetus or embryo, despite its provisions,” under the Emergency Medical Labor Act. “We will be forced to prioritize the health of pregnant women over the health of women.” He is silent about abortion. ”
Following the Winmill decision, Idaho lawmakers won an order from a panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to allow full implementation of the law. However, a larger panel of 9th Circuit judges reversed the panel's decision and set arguments for later this month.
Participants in Planned Parenthood's “Don't Take Out” rally for abortion rights hold up a sign outside the Idaho Statehouse in downtown Boise, Idaho, on May 14, 2022. (Sarah A. Miller/Idaho Statesman, Associated Press, File)
The Supreme Court's order Friday keeps the Idaho case away from the appeals court, where it is expected to be decided this summer.
Several other legal battles over abortion are also underway in Idaho courts.
Four women and several doctors have filed a lawsuit asking an Idaho court to clarify the conditions under which women can legally obtain abortions. The case was recently allowed to proceed despite the attorney general's office's attempt to dismiss the case.
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In November, a federal judge temporarily blocked implementation of Idaho's “abortion trafficking” law amid a legal battle over its constitutionality. This law was intended to prohibit minors from obtaining abortions without parental permission in states where abortion is legal.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
