Idaho Appeals to Supreme Court to Enforce Abortion Law Penalizing Doctors

Idaho petitioned the Supreme Court on Monday to fully enforce its state abortion ban, which penalizes doctors who perform abortions, despite federal regulations for emergency room physicians. The case comes to the high court over a year after the justices overturned the constitutional right to abortion, leading to more than half the states, including Idaho, to either outlaw or significantly limit the procedure.

Idaho's Defense of Life Act is a legislation that effectively prohibits most abortions, with an exception for cases where the mother's life is in danger. It carries penalties for doctors who perform prohibited abortions, unless they determine in good faith and based on the available medical information that the abortion was necessary to save the woman's life. Violating this law could lead to criminal charges and potential suspension of the physician's license. However, a district court has halted the implementation of this law in hospital emergency rooms that receive Medicare funding, citing interference with a federal Medicare statute.

The United States filed a lawsuit alleging that a provision in the federal Medicare statute, known as the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), takes precedence over Idaho's law in emergency rooms. This federal law mandates that hospitals provide stabilizing care to emergency room patients regardless of their ability to pay, aiming to ensure that the poor and uninsured receive emergency medical care at hospitals receiving Medicare reimbursement.

In 2022, Judge B. Lynn Winmill of the US District Court for the District of Idaho ruled that the "broad scope" of Idaho's near total ban on abortion made it appear impossible for emergency health care workers to simultaneously comply with both state and federal law. According to the judge, "the state law must therefore yield to federal law to the extent of that conflict."

The district court ruling was initially put on hold by a federal appeals court pending appeal, but a larger panel of judges on the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals lifted the stay on November 13. Now, the state, represented by a conservative legal group that opposes abortion, is seeking the Supreme Court's intervention on an emergency basis to put the district court ruling on hold while the appeals process unfolds.

A comparable case is currently awaiting resolution in Texas.