Whiteford, Taylor & Preston LLP reposted this
Today, Thursday June 27, 2024, SCOTUS made a call that keeps abortions going in Idaho when it's an emergency. The cases at issues involved Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTATA) which requires doctors in hospitals that get Medicare dollars to help patients in emergencies, and that includes abortions. EMTALAS requirements come into conflict with states with strict abortion bans that only allow abortions when a mother is at risk of death and not an exception for serious injury to health. The whole thing is under two cases, Mike Moyle v. U.S. and Idaho v. U.S. The big takeaway is that the court didn't really touch on how mental health plays into this whole emergency situation and when abortions should be allowed to prevent serious harm. That's a pretty big piece of the puzzle that's still missing. SCOTUS didn't really get into whether EMTALA trumps Idaho's super strict abortion laws. They basically said this isn't the right time to dig into that and sent the whole thing back to the Ninth Circuit to deal with it in the usual way. In the decision, which was 6-3, Justice Elena Kagan echoed this sentiment and noted that by kicking the case back, it stops Idaho from totally banning abortions when it's necessary to stop serious health risks to a woman. Kagan wasn't alone in this; she had Justice Sonia Sotomayor with her, and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was partially on board too. Then you've got Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh who all agreed but wrote their own piece on it. The majority pointed out that they might have jumped the gun by taking on the case too early, even though back in January they put a hold on a lower court's decision. Justice Samuel Alito wasn't having any of it. He wrote a pretty fiery dissent, saying the court shouldn't have taken such a big step like granting the application in the first place if they weren't going to address the main issue. He had Justice Clarence Thomas and partly Justice Neil Gorsuch nodding along with him. The Biden Administration is likely to still fan the flames on this issue as well having just launched a new EMTALA portal making it much easier to report violations, which could help in having an application to SCOTUS in the future. For more on the new portal please see my article below that goes into greater detail on it and the EMTALA state abortion issue more thoroughly.
