On Thursday, the United States Supreme Court handed down its decision in the case Moyle v. United States, consolidated with Idaho v. United States, which surrounds the issue of what the Biden administration touts as “emergency abortion care.”
The case decided whether a federal law, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, requiring hospitals that participate in Medicaid or Medicare to provide “necessary stabilizing treatment” in an emergency, trumps an Idaho law that bans most abortions. In addition, the state law includes criminal penalties of up to five years in prison for anyone who performs one or assists an abortion. There are limited exceptions for rape and threat to the life of the mother.
The Supreme Court will require Idaho to provide abortions in situations that do not align with state law by reinstating an injunction on the state's pro-life law put in place by a lower court. This appears to be a "win" for the Biden administration's aggressive pro-abortion agenda. The concurring opinion was authored by Justice Elena Kagan, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
"An Idaho law prohibits abortions unless necessary to prevent a pregnant woman’s death; the law makes no exception for abortions necessary to prevent grave harms to the woman’s health, like the loss of her fertility," the opinion stated.
"EMTALA requires hospitals to provide abortions that Idaho’s law prohibits. When that is so, Idaho’s law is preempted. The Court’s ruling today follows from those premises. Federal law and Idaho law are in conflict about the treatment of pregnant women facing health emergencies," it added.
"The on-the-ground impact was immediate," Kagan added, referring to the time when the pro-life law took place. She added that Idaho's largest health provider women "had to airlift pregnant women out of Idaho roughly every other week" for emergency abortions.
Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented.
"Apparently, the Court has simply lost the will to decide the easy but emotional and highly politicized question that the case presents. That is regrettable," Alito wrote. "EMTALA obligates Medicare-funded hospitals to treat, not abort, an 'unborn child.'"
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America State Policy Director Katie Daniel said, “The Biden administration’s EMTALA charade is a PR stunt to spread the lie that pro-life laws prevent women from receiving emergency care. It is clear that the abortion lobby has created confusion on this fact for political gain and Democrats have to rely on this false talking point because their agenda for all-trimester abortion is wildly unpopular with support from only 10 percent of Americans.”
"The Democrats will stop at nothing to overturn pro-life protections in every state and impose all-trimester abortion on demand as national law. They must be stopped," SBA Pro-Life President Marjorie Dannenfelser added.
“I am disappointed that SCOTUS has not rejected the Biden administration’s blatant attempt to hijack a law that protects mothers and babies. Throughout my 30-year career, EMTALA has never confused me or my obstetric peers when providing emergency care, especially considering 90% of obstetricians do not perform elective abortions. I have always – before Dobbs, and since – been able and willing to intervene if a pregnancy complication threatened my patient’s life, and every state pro-life law allows us to act. Forcing doctors to end an unborn patient’s life by abortion in the absence of a threat to his mother’s life is coercive, needless and goes against our oath to do no harm," Ingrid Skop, M.D., a board-certified OB-GYN who is the director of medical affairs at Charlotte Lozier Institute, said.
Yesterday, Townhall covered how a draft opinion was accidentally published online. Bloomberg obtained a copy of the opinion before it was taken down. This draft opinion showed the justices split 6-3, with the majority siding with the Biden administration. The version published today aligned with the opinion that was accidentally published on Wednesday.
After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Idaho was one of many states that enacted laws protecting the unborn, as Townhall covered. The Biden administration brought forward the legal challenge, claiming that the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act trumps the state law.
A lower court agreed with the Biden administration and blocked the Idaho law. When the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, it lifted the injunction and reinstated the law.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
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