Idaho Fights at Supreme Court to Protect Babies From Abortions

Idaho officials fought at the Supreme Court today to protect babies from abortion, uphold its pro-life state law and to stop Joe Biden from turning Idaho emergency rooms into abortion centers.

As LifeNews.com reported previously, the Supreme Court ruled in January that Joe Biden can’t force Idaho to turn its emergency rooms into abortion centers. The nation’s highest court ruled that Joe Biden can’t exploit a federal law to try to weaken Idaho’s abortion ban by allowing emergency room doctors to do abortions.

But that decision was a temporary victory and Idaho oficials are fighting in court to win the entire case, Idaho v United States. This is the first case to be heard by the Supreme Court directly relating to the Dobbs decision which overturned Roe v. Wade.

Last year, the Justice Department filed suit Aug. 2 against the state of Idaho, hoping to undermine its new law prohibiting most abortions by claiming that the state law conflicts with EMTALA and medical treatment for pregnant women in emergency rooms. The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) was enacted in 1986 and contains a duty to both a pregnant woman and her unborn child. The act never mentions abortion.

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The Justice Department filed a lawsuit that challenges Idaho’s protective law — arguing that it would prevent supposedly medically necessary abortions. Despite false reports that abortion bans would prevent doctors from treating pregnant women for miscarriages or ectopic pregnancies, pro-life doctors confirm that is not the case. Some 35 states have laws making it clear that miscarriage is not abortion and every state with an abortion ban allows treatment for both.

Today, Idaho attorneys told the high court that the federal government can’t force Idaho to allow abortions outside the scope of its law, even if Idaho accepts federal dollars for medicare.

Justice Samuel Alito agreed on that point and pointed out that EMTALA specifically mentions unborn children.

“How can you impose restrictions on what Idaho can criminalize, simply because hospitals in Idaho have chosen to participate in Medicare?” he asked U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar.

During the hearing, Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett asked tough questions about both sides and their votes could prove crucial in the outcome.

One pro-life group told LifeNews that the outcome of the case is important because it could mandate abortion on demand throughout all fifty states in hospital emergency rooms.

“The Biden Administration is attempting to twist the compassionate EMTALA law to push their radical agenda of unlimited abortion,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life.

She said that Biden’s attempt to force hospital emergency rooms to perform abortions under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) is contrary to that federal law which was only meant to protect emergency room patients from being dumped and does not mandate that the hospital provide medical care that is contrary to state law.

“Apparently, Joe Biden and his administration have determined that emergency rooms are no longer capable of providing care for both mother and child,” said Tobias. “The Biden Administration’s solution is to turn hospital emergency rooms into abortion facilities.”

Texas Alliance for Life’s Communications Director Amy O’Donnell agreed. Het state is also fighting Biden.

“EMTALA, which recognizes two patients in cases of pregnancy, the mother and the unborn child, requires hospitals to provide medically necessary care to stabilize both patients in emergency situations, which could include abortions in those rare and tragic cases when a pregnancy endangers a woman’s life. All states’ laws allow abortions in those circumstances, including the laws of Idaho and Texas,” she said.

“The pro-abortion Biden/Harris Administration’s misinterpretation of EMTALA threatens to transform hospitals into abortion facilities. The Administration asserts that any pregnancy could necessitate abortion at a single physician’s discretion, another attempt to trample on state abortion laws intended to protect unborn babies from elective abortions,” she added. “The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld Texas’ law that protects unborn babies from abortion, with exceptions for medically necessary abortions, from a similar challenge. That Court found that Texas law allows all life-saving abortions required by EMTALA. We believe the Supreme Court should uphold Idaho’s law in the same way.”

Signed by pro-life President Reagan in 1986, EMTALA requires hospitals to treat patients with emergency medical conditions regardless of their ability to pay. The Biden/Harris administration directive threatens to turn hospitals into abortion facilities by claiming that any pregnancy could require abortion if so deemed by a physician. Their so-called guidance goes beyond EMTALA by mandating abortion, where the act does not mandate medical treatments.

The Biden Administration directive also falsely suggests that Idaho and other state pro-life laws fail to protect women facing life-threatening emergencies during pregnancy. This is untrue. All state’s pro-life laws provide an abortion exception for those rare but tragic circumstances in which a pregnancy poses a threat to a mother’s life or poses a risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function.

The Ninth Circuit of Appeals held that “the two laws would not conflict” and that EMTALA does not mandate abortions punishable under Idaho’s law.

According to the latest data from Texas Health & Human Services (through November 2023), reported elective abortions have dropped to zero. However, doctors have performed 75 abortions under the medical necessity exception (for the life or health of the pregnant woman), all in hospitals since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in Dobbs. No doctor has faced prosecution by a district attorney or sanctions from the Texas Medical Board.

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