The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to consider the legality of Idaho’s abortion law — and to reinstate its highly restrictive ban in the meantime — is expected to galvanize a push for similar measures in other states, even before the court issues a ruling later this year.
As state legislatures across the country begin their 2024 sessions, advocates on both sides of the abortion debate said they anticipate ongoing efforts to narrow when emergency abortions can be performed if the mother’s life is in danger.
Last week, the Supreme Court agreed to Idaho officials’ request that it consider overturning a lower court’s ruling that had blocked enforcement of the state law. The Biden administration had sued the state, arguing that Idaho’s statute — permitting abortion only to prevent the death of the mother — violates the standards of the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). The latter requires physicians to provide stabilizing treatment in emergency rooms, which could include abortion, if they “reasonably expect” impairment or dysfunction, or “serious jeopardy to the patient’s health.”
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