Supreme Court is poised to allow emergency abortion care in Idaho, according to a report from Bloomberg. The consequential ruling, which was leaked on Wednesday morning, suggests a 6-3 vote to reinstate a lower court decision that permits abortion care in emergency situations in hospital emergency rooms.
The ruling is expected to see conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Samuel Alito dissenting. The decision dismisses the case as “improvidently granted,” indicating that the Supreme Court believes it should not have taken up the case in the first place.
Bloomberg reported seeing the ruling on the cases Idaho and Moyle v. United States briefly posted on the court’s website before it was removed. Patricia McCabe, the Supreme Court’s public information officer, confirmed the inadvertent posting and stated that the official opinion will be issued in due course.
The case focuses on a 2020 Idaho abortion ban, enforced immediately after the Supreme Court repealed Roe v. Wade in 2022. The legal battle reached the Supreme Court to decide whether Idaho’s near-total abortion ban’s narrow exceptions override federally mandated requirements under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). EMTALA mandates that hospitals participating in Medicare provide abortion care if necessary to stabilize a pregnant patient’s health during a medical emergency.
Under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, federal law takes precedence over state law. However, the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which repealed Roe v. Wade, left the regulation of abortion to the states.
This ruling, if confirmed, will have significant implications for the balance of state and federal authority over abortion laws and the immediate availability of emergency medical care for pregnant patients.
