Source: Reuters
“U.S. Supreme Court justices, wading back into the battle over abortion access, appeared divided on Wednesday in a case pitting Idaho’s strict Republican-backed abortion ban against a federal law that ensures that patients can receive emergency care. The justices heard arguments in an appeal by Idaho officials of a lower court’s ruling that found that the 1986 U.S. law at issue, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), supersedes the state’s near-total ban in the relatively rare circumstances when the two conflict. President Joe Biden’s administration, which sued Idaho over the abortion law, has urged the justices to uphold that ruling. The court has a 6-3 conservative majority. No consensus seemed to emerge among the conservative justices, who expressed concerns including what protections federal law extends to ‘unborn children’ and whether Congress had clearly spelled out that EMTALA can mandate abortion in certain emergency cases.” (04/24/24)