You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

Leaked Supreme Court Opinion Would Allow Idaho Doctors to Perform Some Emergency Abortions

HeadlineJun 27, 2024

Bloomberg reports Supreme Court justices are poised to allow abortions in medical emergencies in Idaho. That’s according to a draft copy of an opinion that was briefly posted on the Supreme Court’s website, apparently by accident. If the 6-3 decision remains unchanged, it will reinstate a lower court order that had ensured Idaho hospitals could perform emergency abortions to protect the health of pregnant people. This is known as the EMTALA case. The decision, however, does not resolve the core issues raised in the case.

In a concurring opinion, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote, “Today’s decision is not a victory for pregnant patients in Idaho. It is delay. While this court dawdles and the country waits, pregnant people experiencing emergency medical conditions remain in a precarious position, as their doctors are kept in the dark about what the law requires. The court had a chance to bring clarity and certainty to this tragic situation, and we have squandered it.”

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top