IDAHO, USA — The Supreme Court cleared the way Thursday for Idaho hospitals to provide emergency abortions for now in a procedural ruling that left key questions unanswered and could mean the issue ends up before the conservative-majority court again soon.
The ruling came after a day an opinion was briefly posted on the court's website accidently and quickly taken down, but not before it was obtained by Bloomberg.
After the ruling was released, many Inland Northwest leaders reacted to the decision.
Idaho Democratic Party Chair Lauren Necochea
“This ruling provides a temporary sliver of relief to patients facing dire medical emergencies and the doctors and nurses who desperately want to treat them without risking a prison sentence. It does not change that the Idaho Republican supermajority has completely yielded to the anti-abortion hardliners. Patients with a non-emergency health threat, patients with a nonviable pregnancy, rape victims who will almost always be unable to meet the paperwork requirements, and any woman who simply does not want to carry a pregnancy will have no options unless they have the means and time to travel out of state.
“Since emergency care protections were lifted in January and the full GOP abortion ban took effect, Idaho’s largest health system has been airlifting patients with pregnancy complications out of state every other week. The Republican leaders who went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to maintain this horrific reality have no plans to stop. Now, the anti-choice extremists want to criminalize the practice of in vitro fertilization, a position endorsed by the Idaho Republican Party platform. The only way to win back our reproductive freedoms is to elect Idaho Democrats up and down the ballot.”
Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador
“The Supreme Court sent the case back to the 9th Circuit today after my office won significant concessions from the United States that Justice Barrett described as ‘important’ and ‘critical.’ Today, the Court said that Idaho will be able to enforce its law to save lives in the vast majority of circumstances while the case proceeds. The Biden administration’s concession that EMTALA will rarely override Idaho’s law caused the Supreme Court to ask the 9th Circuit for review in light of the federal government’s change in position. Justice Barrett wrote, those concessions mean that Idaho’s Defense of Life Act ‘remains almost entirely intact.’ The 9th Circuit’s decision should be easy. As Justice Alito explained well: the Biden Administration’s ‘preemption theory is plainly unsound.’ I remain committed to protect unborn life and ensure women in Idaho receive necessary medical care, and I will continue my outreach to doctors and hospitals across Idaho to ensure that they understand what our law requires. We look forward to ending this Administration’s relentless overreach into Idahoans’ right to protect and defend life.”
Idaho Chief of Constitutional Litigation and Policy Josh Turner, who argued the case before the U.S. Supreme Court in April
“I could not be more proud of what our office has accomplished in this case so far. We forced the Biden Administration to make major concessions before the Supreme Court that it did not want to make, and those concessions are going to save many unborn lives. The people of Idaho should not be fooled by the misleading headlines in the media. Instead, I encourage everyone to read the Court’s opinions for themselves. The Court may have decided to “punt” today on the merits given the Biden Administration’s “important” and “critical” concessions, but I have zero doubt after reading the decision, after standing before the justices and answering their questions, and after listening to the DOJ’s best arguments to defend the Biden Administration’s legally untenable position, that Idaho’s Defense of Life Act is not preempted by EMTALA and will be vindicated in full.”
U.S. Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho)
“When the Supreme Court released its decision in Dobbs in 2022, the Court returned the power to determine abortion laws to the states. That is exactly what Idaho chose to do with our strong pro-life legislation. With legislative leaders in the Gem State, we will continue to fight to protect the lives of the unborn, women, and families.”
Washington State Senator Patty Murray
“Women in America deserve nothing less than an outright rejection, on the merits, of the very idea that their doctors cannot provide lifesaving abortion care. This decision fails patients and doctors—and leaves an unacceptable level of uncertainty for women and their health care providers.
“Even with EMTALA still in place for now in Idaho —Republican abortion bans continue to have a dangerous chilling effect. Doctors are still forced to contend with dangerous laws on the books that threaten them with prosecution or jail time, making our health care providers either hesitant or altogether unwilling to provide women lifesaving abortion care in these states.
“We are talking about women whose water breaks dangerously early, or who are experiencing uncontrollable hemorrhage, sepsis, or pre-eclampsia—these are the women Republicans don’t think deserve access to emergency care. And so, even with today’s ruling that leaves so much in question, pregnant women whose health is in danger are still being denied necessary medical care every day in America, including just across the border from my home state.
“And let’s be clear, providing emergency stabilizing care under EMTALA is the bare minimum to keep a patient alive—these women may have undergone tremendous trauma and suffering up until they meet the threshold for emergency stabilizing care. Women shouldn’t have to lose organ function or their ability to have children jeopardized just to receive basic medical care.
“Republicans and Donald Trump won’t stop until abortion is outlawed everywhere, until abortion care is impossible to obtain no matter a woman’s circumstance, and until pregnant women have fewer rights than an embryo—this is their vision for America. President Biden and his administration will keep fighting every way they can to protect access to essential health care, but we need the support in Congress to restore the right to abortion nationwide—that’s what we’ll keep fighting to do.”
Washington State Medical Association President and OB-GYN Nariman Heshmati
“While a welcome development for patients’ access to care, today’s Supreme Court decision regarding EMTALA doesn’t mean an end to this issue, as there will likely be further challenges to the law. States like Washington that have a long history of protecting access to abortion care must remain vigilant in defending the sanctity of the physician-patient relationship. The Washington State Medical Association has extensive policy in support of promoting access to abortion and all essential health care services.
“We urge our state leaders to keep doing everything in their power to ensure Washington can fully meet the needs of our patients and those patients who travel here from states with abortion restrictions to seek care.”
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