Supreme Court dismisses Idaho abortion challenge, allowing doctors to perform emergency abortions
SalonOn Thursday, The Supreme Court ruled that doctors are allowed to provide emergency abortions to stabilize a patient’s health and life, meaning Idaho’s near-total abortion ban does not take precedence over a federal law known as the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act The 6-3 opinion included three dissenting Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas, while three of the court's conservatives — Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — sided with the three liberals — Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson. While access to emergency abortion care has been restored in Idaho for now, the court had the opportunity today to make clear that the federal EMTALA law protects pregnant patients’ access to emergency abortion care in every state. Legal experts have repeatedly told Salon that if the Supreme Court ruled that EMTALA doesn’t cover life and health-saving abortions, it would essentially make pregnant women “second-class citizens” in America’s emergency rooms. “This case could radically change how emergency medical care is practiced in this country and could make pregnant people second-class citizens in America's emergency rooms,” Alexa Kolbi-Molinas, deputy director of the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, told Salon.