The nation’s highest courts heard arguments last week, April 24, over the the state's Defense of Life Act. The law, approved in 2022, prohibits abortion unless it is necessary to save the life of the mother.
Idaho learned in January the high court was allowing the state law to stand but the justices agreed to hear an appeal from the Biden administration.
Carol Tobias, of National Right to Life, tells AFN the Idaho law is complicated by a 1986 federal law, Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act. That law requires a hospital emergency room to treat every patient for their injury regardless of their ability to pay.
"Included in that law,” Tobias explains, “was a provision that said a pregnant woman and the unborn children are to both be treated and protected."
According to the abortion-defending Biden administration, citing the 1986 law, emergency rooms must perform abortions if a woman declares a health concern.
Reacting to last week’s oral arguments, Tobias hopes the justices understood the Biden administration was attempting to use a 1986 law to turn emergency rooms into abortion clinics.
"We know how broadly the supreme court in Doe v Bolton defined health," says Tobias. "So this is opening our hospital emergency rooms, in all 50 states, up to basically become abortion facilities."
Amy O'Donnell, of Texas Alliance for Life, says the Idaho law allows for medically necessary abortions when the health of the mother is an issue.
"All state laws allow abortions in those circumstances, including Idaho and Texas," she says. "What we're seeing here is our federal Biden-Harris administration is trying to circumvent state laws by broadening exceptions beyond what's allowed in those state laws."
