US Supreme Court Considers Major New Abortion Case as Biden Admin Challenges Idaho Ban

The U.S. Supreme Court will soon decide whether to strike down Idaho's near-total abortion ban. The justices heard arguments Wednesday in a case that will likely impact other states.

The Idaho law allows abortion only to save the life of the mother. The Biden administration sued the state, claiming the law violates a federal law called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). It was passed nearly forty years ago by Congress and was designed to prevent "patient dumping," whereby private hospitals at the time would send Emergency Room patients who couldn't afford treatment to other hospitals that accept poor patients. The law requires hospitals to stabilize E.R. patients before transferring them to other hospitals. 

Conservative justices pushed back on the Emergency Act argument. For example, Justice Brett Kavanaugh pointed out that when Congress passed EMTALA in 1986 their purpose was to help underserved people obtain medical care, not condone abortion. 

"We can't allow hospitals in this country to turn away poor uninsured people in an emergency," he said. "Their theme is that the law was not designed contextually to deal with abortion or other specific kinds of care."

Justice Samuel Alito took that argument one step further by pointing out EMTALA does specifically identify unborn children as patients to be considered in EMTALA. 

"One potentially very important phrase in EMTALA," he said, "is the reference to the woman's unborn child. Isn't that an odd phrase to put in a statute that imposes a mandate to perform abortions? Have you ever seen an abortion statute that uses the phrase, 'unborn child?'"

Alito continued with that point.

"So in that situation the hospital must stabilize the threat to the unborn child. And it seems like the plain meaning is that the hospital must try to eliminate any immediate threat to the child. Performing an abortion is antithetical to that duty," he said.

The Biden administration says EMTALA requires doctors to perform abortions in cases where, not just a woman's life is threatened, but in cases where her health is in jeopardy.  Joshua Turner, representing the state of Idaho suggested that could be interpreted to include mental health.  

Turner accused the Biden administration of trying to use the federal law EMTALA to reinstate a nationwide abortion mandate.

"There are 22 states with abortion laws on the books. This isn't going to end with Idaho," he said, "because all of the states that have abortion regulations define the health and the emergency exception narrower than EMTALA does. So this question is going to come up in state, after state, after state."

Chief Justice Roberts raised the issue of conscience, where pro-life physicians or institutions such as Catholic hospitals, might be required to perform abortions. The Biden administration said Wednesday in court EMTALA does not call for those who oppose abortions to be forced to do them.  

The U.S. Supreme Court will announce its decision on this case in June.