Supreme Court Would Allow Emergency Abortions in Idaho, Bloomberg Reports

According to a copy of the opinion published by Bloomberg, the court’s decision would reinstate a lower court ruling that had allowed emergency abortion while the litigation continued. The court suspended that decision several months ago, as part of an emergency action, before hearing arguments in the case in April.

It is extremely rare – perhaps unprecedented – for a Supreme Court decision to be published on the Court’s website before the decision is issued, and it is possible that the published document may differ from the opinion expressed at the time of its announcement. The momentous decision overturning Deer, known as Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organizationwas also made public very early, in this case through a leak to the Politico news agency.

A Supreme Court spokeswoman said Wednesday that the release of the Idaho decision was accidental, cautioning that no decision had been issued.

“The Court’s Publications Unit inadvertently and briefly uploaded a document to the Court’s website,” spokeswoman Patricia McCabe said in a statement. “The opinion of the Court in Moyle v. UNITED STATES And Idaho v. United States will be published in due course.

The text published by Bloomberg shows the justices voting 6-3 with conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch dissenting.

Liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson also wrote separately to say the court should have resolved the case decisively rather than taking the interim step of leaving the country. a lower court decision is in effect while the dispute continues.

“Today’s decision is not a victory for Idaho’s pregnant patients. This is a delay,” she wrote in a partially dissenting opinion. “While this court drags on and the country waits, pregnant women facing emergency medical issues remain in a precarious position because their doctors do not know what the law requires.”

In a concurring opinion, Justice Elena Kagan says Idaho’s strict ban forced the state’s largest emergency services provider to fly pregnant women out of the state about every two weeks. The court’s decision “will prevent Idaho from enforcing its abortion ban when terminating a pregnancy is necessary to avoid serious harm to a woman’s health,” Kagan wrote, joined by Jackson and Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

The White House declined to comment on the decision until it was made.

The case focuses on the nearly four-decade-old Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, known as EMTALA, which requires hospitals that receive federal funds to stabilize or transfer patients requiring emergency care.

The Biden administration sued Idaho in 2022, claiming the state’s strict ban on abortion contradicted the law. Idaho bans almost all abortions and imposes sentences of up to five years in prison for doctors who perform the procedure, except in cases “necessary to prevent the death of a pregnant woman.”

Administration said EMTALA required abortions for pregnant women as necessary to deal with threatening health problems, such as organ failure or loss of fertility, without risking death.

In August 2022, a district judge sided with the Biden administration and ruled that because of hospitals’ obligation under federal law, Idaho doctors cannot be punished for performing an abortion to protect the health of a patient.

Then a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit allowed the state to enforce the law — before a full complement of judges from the same appeals court again blocked Idaho’s ability to punish emergency room doctors while calls continued.

In January, the Supreme Court agreed to take up the case in response to Idaho’s emergency request and allowed the law to take effect while litigation continued.

The case is one of two cases coming before the high court this term that will shape abortion access nationwide, two years after the justices overturned it. Roe deerwhich had guaranteed a constitutional right to abortion.

In early June, the justices unanimously rejected a challenge to the widely used abortion drug mifepristone, saying the anti-abortion doctors who filed the lawsuit lacked standing to do so.

The court is in the final days of its term, with the EMTALA decision and about eight others yet to be announced to the public.

This is a developing story. It will be updated.

Dan Diamond and Aaron Schaffer contributed to this report.