WASHINGTON – WASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court cleared the way Thursday for Idaho hospitals to provide emergency services abortionsfor now, in a procedural order that left important questions unanswered and could mean the issue will soon end up again in the conservative-majority court.
The order it was briefly posted on the court’s website accidentally on Wednesday and then abruptly removed. By a vote of 6-3, it reverses the court’s previous order that had allowed Idaho’s abortion ban to go into effect, even in medical emergencies.
Abortion is a major issue in the 2024 election campaign, a direct result of the court’s seismic ruling two years ago that struck down the nation’s right to abortion. But in this decision and in another that preserved access to abortion medication, the court did not issue broader decisions.
Idaho’s order does not answer key questions about whether doctors can perform emergency abortions elsewhere, a significant question as most Republican-controlled states have taken steps to restrict the procedure.
In Texas, for example, an appeals court sided with the state, concluding federal health law does not overcome a state ban about abortion. Complaints of pregnant patients turned away from emergency rooms in Texas immediately increased following the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Wade, according to federal documents obtained by The Associated Press.
The Supreme Court took up the Idaho case after the Biden administration sued to allow abortion in emergency cases where a woman’s health was at serious risk. Idaho argued that its law allows life-saving abortions and that the federal government was wrongly pushing for broader exceptions.
But the contours of the issue have changed in the months since the court agreed to hear it, Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote in a settlement joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
“I am now convinced that these cases are no longer appropriate for early resolution,” Barrett wrote, pointing to revisions Idaho made to its abortion ban and the Biden administration making clear it was only trying to allow emergency abortions. in rare cases. Kavanaugh and Barrett were part of the majority that voted to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson said the court should have ruled now, arguing that its previous order meant Idaho doctors were forced to watch as patients suffered or were flown out of the state for care.
“While this court delays and the country waits, pregnant people facing emergency medical conditions remain in a precarious position,” she said, underlining her opinion by reading a summary of her opinion aloud in court. “This court had an opportunity to bring clarity and certainty to this tragic situation, and we squandered it.”
His liberal colleagues agreed to the dismissal.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, “No woman should be denied care or wait until she is close to death or be forced to flee her home state just to receive the health care she needs.”
Conservative Justice Samuel Alito, author of the Dobbs v. Jackson, who overturned Roe, disagreed with the decision to dismiss the case now. Joined by Justices Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas, he suggested the court should side with Idaho. The federal health law “shows conclusively that it does not require hospitals to perform abortions,” he wrote.
The premature release of the opinion marked the second time in two years that an abortion decision was approved early, albeit under different circumstances. The court’s historic decision ending the constitutional right to abortion was leaked to Politico.
President Joe Biden said Wednesday’s court order ensures the Idaho women can receive the care they need while the case continues to unfold.
“Doctors should be able to practice medicine. Patients must be able to receive the care they need,” he said.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, “No woman should be denied care or wait until she is close to death or be forced to flee her home state just to receive the health care she needs.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department will continue to press its case and use “every tool available to ensure that women in every state have access to this care.”
A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that about 7 in 10 U.S. adults support protecting access to abortion for patients who experience miscarriages or other pregnancy-related emergencies.
Dr. Kara Cadwallader, a family medicine physician in Boise, said she is hopeful the ruling will allow for appropriate medical care when a patient’s health is threatened in Idaho. She described a pregnant patient whose membranes ruptured mid-pregnancy, leaving her at risk of bleeding to death and sepsis. An Idaho hospital said it could not care for her because she needed an abortion and instead recommended that she leave the state.
It took the patient two weeks to get an appointment in Seattle, Cadwallader said. Now, patients like her can receive treatment in Idaho.
“This is incredibly important for those of us who actually see patients, because we have been sending these patients out of state unnecessarily in search of something we could easily care for them here at home,” she said.
Abortion rights groups said the ruling would bring temporary relief but leave “devastating” uncertainty about the bigger picture. “This fight is far from over,” said Alexa Kolbi-Molinas, deputy director of the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project.
Idaho State Attorney General Raúl Labrador said the Biden administration’s position has changed to become “much more modest” than it appeared when the case was first filed. Idaho will still be able to enforce its law in the vast majority of circumstances, he said, citing Barrett’s concurrence.
Still, he also hoped the issue would return to the Supreme Court. “We are confident that we will win this case in the end,” he said.
The Biden administration also appealed the Texas emergency abortion ruling to the high court, leaving another avenue for the issue to resurface. It is unlikely that the justices will even consider taking up the Texas case before the fall.
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Associated Press writers Fatima Hussein, Colleen Long and Amanda Seitz in Washington, Darlene Superville aboard Air Force 1, Christine Fernando in Chicago and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed to this report.
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