WASHINGTON, D.C. — A ruling issued by the U.S. Supreme Court Thursday, June 27, allows for emergency abortions at hospitals in Idaho.
The high court issued a one-sentence decision saying that it was dismissing the case, putting back into effect a lower court’s order allowing hospitals to perform abortions in Idaho in emergency cases.
The court was divided 6 to 3 on the issue, with three conservative justices, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas, dissenting.
An earlier version of the decision was accidentally leaked on the Court’s website a day earlier, Bloomberg News reported.
At stake was the state’s Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), which requires Medicare-funded hospitals to provide essential care to patients in medical emergencies. The Biden Administration filed a suit in 2022 claiming that the EMTALA took precedence over Idaho’s near-complete abortion ban for specific cases in which a pregnant person’s health is seriously threatened.
In anticipation of the suit being successful, the District Court issued an injunction allowing hospitals in the state to perform emergency abortions. Then in January, the Supreme Court decided to hear the case.
With the dismissal of the case, the original injunction stands and abortions will again be allowed in Idaho for pregnant parents whose health is in jeopardy, for now.
The court skirted around issues surrounding the legality of the EMTALA in its decision, instead sending the case back to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, but it might take up the case again at a later date.
