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Washington, DC – October 23, 2024 – Today, experts filed 16 amicus briefs supporting federal protections for emergency abortion care following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to send Moyle v. United States back to a lower appeals court.
The case revolves around the clash between Idaho’s strict abortion ban and the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). EMTALA requires that Medicare-funded hospitals provide stabilizing treatment to individuals facing emergency medical conditions, including emergency abortion care. However, Idaho’s law prohibits nearly all abortions, even when a pregnant person’s health is seriously at risk. This creates a conflict with EMTALA’s requirement for hospitals to deliver necessary emergency care.
On June 27, 2024, the Supreme Court dismissed the case without ruling on the merits, admitting that it should not have taken the case when it did, and sent the case back to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, refusing to provide needed clarity about whether state abortion bans will be allowed to override longstanding federal emergency medical care requirements.
“The Supreme Court’s refusal to affirm that EMTALA protects emergency abortion care has put patients at risk and created confusion across the country. The lower appeals court now has the opportunity to confirm that EMTALA requires emergency abortion care notwithstanding Idaho’s strict abortion ban,” said Gretchen Borchelt, vice president for reproductive rights and health at the National Women’s Law Center. “These amicus briefs from a range of interested stakeholders make crystal clear what is at stake in this case: emergency care, including abortion, must be guaranteed. We will continue to fight for federal protections so that patients can receive the care they need without fear, delay, or barriers.”
“Doctors and healthcare providers deserve the certainty that living up to their oath to help people will not put them in legal jeopardy. The Supreme Court’s failure to rule unequivocally—as our Constitution requires—that Idaho’s abortion ban conflicts with longstanding federal protection entitling people to life- and health-saving emergency care has continued to sow chaos in hospitals across the country,” said Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward. “Democracy Forward is honored to represent doctors and healthcare providers in informing the court how important it is for the federal guarantee of care in emergency cases to be protected from harmful political attacks.”
This latest round of amicus brief submissions builds on earlier efforts to defend EMTALA. In March, a broad coalition of major medical organizations, physicians, people who have been denied critical health-and life-saving emergency abortion care, former HHS officials, Members of Congress, states, cities, counties, prosecutors, public health experts, legal scholars, businesses, advocates for disability rights and survivors of intimate partner violence, abortion funds, and over 100 gender justice, reproductive rights and justice, civil rights, and labor organizations filed 27 amicus briefs with the Supreme Court in support of the federal government’s challenge to Idaho’s statute, emphasizing the essential nature of stabilizing emergency care for all, regardless of state laws.
