The U.S. Supreme Court will take up an Idaho case on Wednesday that could have widespread implications around the country.
It involves an Idaho abortion law and a lawsuit filed by the Biden Administration, which argued hospitals that receive Medicare funds are required by federal law to provide emergency care, which could potentially include abortion, no matter if there's a state law banning abortion.
Under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), hospitals and doctors are required to treat patients until their medical emergency is stabilized or resolved, which can include providing abortion care.
Idaho code allows physicians to perform abortions to prevent the death of a patient. But Boise OBGYN Dr. Sara Thomson said doctors have an ethical duty to intervene before their patients’ health deteriorates to a life-threatening emergency.
The question before SCOTUS is whether EMTALA openly and directly conflicts with a portion of Idaho's abortion law. Idaho's law has limited exceptions to providing abortions and physicians feel they cannot provide "stabilizing care" when a person needs it.
Defining what stabilizing care is is going to be a large part of the argument, but the other part is whether or not the federal government has reached too far in regards to EMTALA.
"Did the federal agency that is responsible for enforcing EMTALA go too far by making this argument that EMTALA means required abortion care? I think that the conservative justices are really going to be interested in that kind of question," said McKay Cunningham, the director of the On-Campus Experiential Learning at the College of Idaho.
EMTALA was enacted in 1986 by Congress to ensure public access to emergency services regardless of ability to pay.
"A patient who is pregnant and has an emergency medical condition, the doctors are going to look at her say 'Okay, if we do not address this emergency medical condition and it may require termination, we are not going to be able to save potential bodily functions," said Peg Dougherty, the Deputy General Counsel for St. Luke's Health System. "We are not going to be able to save her reproductive organs. Those are health matters that would be able to preserve the patient's health if our doctors were able to do that."
The Idahoans United for Women and Families coalition said their poll of about 600 residents shows three out of five Idahoans believe abortions should be legal in some or almost all cases. Spokesperson Melanie Folwell said 12% believe abortions should never be legal.
The coalition is campaigning to introduce an initiative regarding the legality of abortion on the 2026 ballot. To do so, the coalition will have to gather signatures representing at least 6% of eligible voters in the most recent election, coming from at least 18 of Idaho's 35 legislative districts.
A recent study published by the Idaho Coalition for Safe Healthcare showed Idaho lost 22% of its OBGYNs since the strict abortion bans went into effect in 2022.
Cunningham and Dougherty joined Idaho Matters to help break down the law and the arguments coming up in the Supreme Court.
Editor's note (correction): We did reach out to the Idaho Attorney General’s Office about the EMTALA case, once in January and in April but our emails got lost in the Spam folder and were never received. We spoke with the AG’s Office after this story aired, the issue has been fixed, and we’ve extended a new invitation to come on Idaho Matters and break down the arguments on Idaho’s side of this case.
