BREAKING: US Supreme Court poised to allow emergency abortions in Idaho – YouTube
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court appears ready to permit emergency abortions in Idaho when a pregnant patient’s health is at serious risk. This information comes from a draft opinion briefly posted on the court’s website and obtained by Bloomberg News.
The draft indicates that the court may decide it should not have intervened in the case concerning Idaho’s strict abortion ban so quickly. By a 6-3 vote, it would reinstate a lower court’s order that allowed hospitals in Idaho to perform emergency abortions to protect a pregnant patient’s health.
Justice Jackson’s Concurrence
Such an outcome would leave the core issues unresolved, with key questions remaining unanswered, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson noted in a concurrence. “Today’s decision is not a victory for pregnant patients in Idaho. It is delay,” she wrote.
The Supreme Court acknowledged the accidental posting of the document, stating that an official opinion on the Idaho case would be issued “in due course,” according to court spokeswoman Patricia McCabe.
Red Sox manager doesn’t think trade talk will bother this year’s club. Conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch dissented from the decision.
The finding may not be the court’s final ruling since the justices’ decision hasn’t been officially released. This decision means the case would continue at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court and could return to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court may be hesitant to make an abortion-related decision on the merits, especially in an election year, said Greer Donley, a reproductive law scholar and professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.
A new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that about 7 in 10 U.S. adults favor protecting access to abortions for patients experiencing miscarriages or other pregnancy-related emergencies.
Health Risks and Legal Battles
The decision would reverse the Supreme Court’s earlier order that allowed an Idaho abortion ban to temporarily take effect, even in medical emergencies. Idaho doctors have reported several women needing medical airlifts out of state for abortion treatment to avoid infection, hemorrhage, and other serious health risks.
The nation’s top health official, Xavier Becerra, held a meeting with Idaho doctors and patients to discuss the state’s strict abortion ban. Sarah Thompson, an Idaho OB/GYN, emphasized that if a woman’s water breaks early in pregnancy with no chance of fetal survival, they are unable to treat the patient by delivering the baby early. “While there’s nothing we can do to save her baby, there is something we can do to preserve her health and her future fertility,” Thompson said.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists expressed hope that the court would “listen to the scientific evidence and medical experts” and ultimately affirm the availability of emergency abortion care for people in every state, stated general counsel Molly Meegan.
The case originated when the Biden administration sued Idaho, arguing that its abortion ban conflicted with federal healthcare law by not allowing doctors to provide abortions to stabilize pregnant patients in rare emergency cases when their health is at serious risk.
Idaho contended its ban allows abortions to save a pregnant patient’s life and that federal law does not require broader exceptions. The state attorney general’s office declined to comment.
Katie Daniel, state policy director of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said an Idaho state court had ruled that women’s lives don’t need to be in immediate danger to act.
Ongoing Legal Debates
Most Republican-controlled states began enforcing restrictions after the justices overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago, with Idaho among 14 states outlawing abortion at all stages of pregnancy with very limited exceptions.
Rachel Rebouche, dean of Temple University Beasley School of Law and a reproductive law scholar, noted that the case is likely to return to the Supreme Court. The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in a similar case that federal law does not take precedence over an abortion ban in Texas.
Although the Supreme Court’s ruling would allow abortion in medical emergencies in Idaho for now, Rebouche said, “Nearly 38 million people live in the 5th Circuit. That’s a lot of people whose lives aren’t changed at all by this.”
Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, warned that a decision without explicit guarantees for emergency abortion access would be “catastrophic.”
Reports of pregnant women being turned away from U.S. emergency rooms spiked after the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling overturning the constitutional right to abortion, according to federal documents obtained by The Associated Press.
A ruling in Idaho’s favor could create a “world in which women would have to lose their reproductive organs,” said Sara Rosenbaum, a George Washington University health law and policy professor.
The Justice Department’s lawsuit cited the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), requiring hospitals accepting Medicare to provide stabilizing care regardless of a patient’s ability to pay. Nearly all hospitals accept Medicare, meaning emergency room doctors in Idaho and other states with bans would need to provide abortions if required to stabilize a pregnant patient and avoid serious health risks.
Idaho argued its exception for a patient’s life covers dire health circumstances, and that the Biden administration misinterpreted the law to circumvent the state ban and expand abortion access.
Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee, expressed satisfaction that the Justice Department acknowledged the rarity of these cases.
Doctors in Idaho have reported fear of performing abortions, even when a patient’s health is severely at risk, due to the law’s severe penalties. The law mandates a minimum two-year imprisonment for anyone convicted of performing an abortion.
A federal judge initially sided with the Democratic administration, ruling that abortions were legal in medical emergencies. After the state appealed, the Supreme Court allowed the law to take full effect in January.