“EMTALA is currently the only federal protection for patients who need emergency abortions. If the Supreme Court eviscerates that, there is no doubt that people will die,” Northup said in a statement. Read more at Rolling Stone
The Supreme Court on Friday allowed Idaho to enforce provisions of a strict new abortion ban that could penalize doctors who perform the procedure in emergency situations. Read more at NBC News
Still, the Court’s decision to also suspend a lower court’s order holding that EMTALA does mean what it says and that it preempts an Idaho law that prohibits all abortions except when “necessary to prevent the death of the pregnant woman” is quite unexpected. The Court sat on these two cases for more than a … Read more
The ruling by a unanimous panel of fifth US circuit court of appeals comes amid a wave of lawsuits focusing on abortion exceptions Read more at The Guardian
A federal law requires most hospitals to perform emergency abortions. The question is whether a Republican Supreme Court will enforce it. Read more at Vox
In its first legal action to protect abortion access after Roe’s demise, the justice department in August 2022 sued Idaho over its law, claiming that it violated the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or Emtala. After Roe fell, the Biden administration issued guidance clarifying that Emtala, which requires hospitals that receive federal funding … Read more
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra published a memo shortly after the Dobbs decision reminding hospitals that EMTALA requires them to perform abortions as part of emergency stabilizing care. Idaho’s ban prohibits abortions except when necessary to prevent the pregnant woman’s death. Read more at Talking Points Memo
The case centers on the clash between state abortion bans and the longstanding Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). The federal Department of Health and Human Services sent around a memo after Dobbs reminding providers of their obligations to perform abortions as part of emergency stabilizing care, which set off the legal squirmishes. Read … Read more
The ruling is a blow to the Biden administration’s effort to use a federal law mandating emergency room treatment to soften the impact of the Supreme Court’s decision last year to overturn the federal constitutional right to abortion established in Roe v. Wade in 1973. Read more at Politico
Women who say they were denied abortions in medical emergencies have taken legal action in Idaho, Oklahoma and Tennessee, in the latest attempt to challenge abortion bans that, abortion patients and doctors say, prevent people from getting care even when their health is in danger. Read more at The Guardian
