Supreme Court Kicks Decision on EMTALA Back Down to Lower Court, Emergency Abortion Available in Idaho in the Meantime
For Immediate Release: June 27, 2024
Boise, ID — In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court of the United States dismissed the case regarding Idaho's violation of the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) as "improvidently granted," and ultimately sent it back to a lower court to be retried. As the case moves through the lower court, emergency abortion care will be reinstated in Idaho.
Although a temporary positive outcome that will save lives in Idaho, this is the bare minimum a state should be providing to patients in life-threatening situations. Emergency care was unavailable to patients within the state for seven months and Idaho’s largest hospital system reported it has had to airlift six patients for emergency abortion care out of state in the last three months alone.
Statement from Planned Parenthood Great Northwest Hawai‘i, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky including Idaho CEO Rebecca Gibron:
“For now, we can take a collective sigh of relief for pregnant people in Idaho. But the truth is that access to life-saving abortion care in an emergency should never have been in doubt. The fact that this right remains in legal limbo is outrageous and shameful. Protecting pregnant people in emergency situations is the bare minimum this court could do and yet they kicked the decision down to a lower court. Two years after the fall of Roe v. Wade, we are seeing just how serious the dangers are to patients’ lives and health without the right to abortion.
To patients in Idaho, we know how important it is that health care options remain available and accessible to you when you need them most, including emergency abortion care. We won’t stop fighting for our patients.”
EMTALA, which has been law since 1986, requires that if a health care professional determines that a pregnant patient presenting at a hospital emergency department is experiencing an emergency medical condition — and that abortion is the stabilizing treatment necessary to resolve that condition — the physician must provide that treatment. The Biden administration’s 2022 guidance affirmed that a state’s abortion law is not enforceable if it prevents a hospital emergency department from providing abortions when required by EMTALA.
Read more about the lawsuit here.
###
Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawai‘i, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky (PPGNHAIK) is a leading sexual and reproductive health care provider and advocate. The organization operates health centers in Alaska, Hawai‘i, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, and Western Washington and provides medical services and sexuality education for thousands of people each year. Planned Parenthood is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization and relies heavily on charitable donations to ensure our patients' ability to determine their own destinies and receive the health care they need.