AGs Call on Ninth Circuit to Reject Idaho Restriction on Emergency Abortion Care
Chicago – Attorney General Kwame Raoul, as part of a coalition of 24 attorneys general, filed an amicus brief in United States v. Idaho to protect access to emergency abortion care in Idaho. The brief urges the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to uphold a lower court’s preliminary injunction blocking Idaho’s restrictive abortion ban.
“No pregnant patient experiencing an emergency health condition should be denied care or be forced to travel long distances for life-saving treatment,” Raoul said. “Emergency abortion care saves lives and prevents further bodily harm, and a patient’s access to a potentially-lifesaving abortion should not depend upon the state in which they reside. I will continue to stand up for the rights of patients to access all forms of reproductive health care not only here in Illinois but across the country.”
The federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) generally requires hospitals that operate an emergency department and participate in Medicare – virtually every hospital in the country – to treat all patients who have an emergency medical condition before discharging or transferring them. Attorney General Raoul and the coalition maintain that several government agencies and courts have long determined that emergency abortion care and other pregnancy related emergencies are covered under EMTALA, and so Idaho’s ban cannot be enforced.
The attorneys general argue that allowing Idaho to override EMTALA’s protections for emergency abortion care could lead to pregnant patients dying or suffering irreversible injuries. The brief also notes that this action by Idaho could cause health care providers to leave the state, leading to worsened patient care and pregnant patients seeking care in other states, which can overwhelm their health care systems. In fact, within a few months of Idaho’s abortion ban going into effect, nearly one in four obstetricians left the state or retired. This past March, a multistate coalition of attorneys general filed an amicus brief with the United States Supreme Court in this case, urging the court to maintain the district court’s preliminary injunction. The court ultimately sent the case back to the Ninth Circuit with the district court’s injunction intact.
Joining Raoul in filing the amicus brief are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.
