The U.S. Supreme Court punted on a major abortion-related decision in Moyle v. United States by sending a case against Idaho’s Defense of Life Act back to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
The decision was made after an appeal and dealt with Idaho’s pro-life Defense of Life Act and whether it was preempted by the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), which the Biden administration claims includes abortions. The court's decision to send the case back to a lower court restores emergency abortions in Idaho for the time being.
The preliminary injunction is restored that blocks enforcement of Idaho’s pro-life law. The Court sided with the Biden administration and its argument that supposedly ‘life-saving’ and ‘necessary’ abortions (which are a fiction) allowed by EMTALA take precedence over the state law, requiring Idaho hospitals to provide such abortions. This could have implications for other Republican states attempting to restrict abortions even as the federal government tries desperately to block such restrictions.
Unfortunately, this was at least a temporary win for the Biden administration’s aggressive federal championing of killing babies as standard “women’s healthcare,” even though abortion is very physically and psychologically harmful to women, too. Leftists, of course, framed the case as putting “lifesaving abortions” at risk. This is completely deceptive terminology since thousands of doctors have testified to the fact that an abortion (direct killing of an unborn baby) is never necessary to save a mother‘s life. The preliminary injunction against Idaho’s pro-life law is again allowed to take effect, ensuring more dead babies, at least for now.
The Biden administration’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has guidance forcing hospitals with Medicare funding to give “emergency” abortions as “necessary stabilizing treatment” for mothers under the EMTALA, according to CatholicVote. Idaho had challenged this federal guidance. To clarify, despite what Democrats might pretend, Idaho law does not prevent or restrict medical procedures to save women’s lives that may result in the death of unborn children. CatholicVote had warned before the decision that ruling in the Biden administration’s favor would mean “the way that states regulate abortion treatment and healthcare would be radicalized as a way to undermine the previous [pro-life SCOTUS] decision of Dobbs v. Jackson which famously overturned Roe v. Wade.”
Ballotpedia provides a summary:
Moyle v. United States is a case challenging a federal law that requires hospitals to provide necessary stabilizing treatment to pregnant women in emergencies which, in the Biden administration's view, includes emergency abortions. Idaho and the state legislature challenged the federal law, arguing in part that it conflicts with the Idaho Defense of Life Act. The case was argued before the Supreme Court of the United States on April 24, 2024, during the court’s October 2023-2024 term. It was consolidated with Idaho v. United States
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Idaho and refused to stop a U.S. district court that sought to prevent Idaho from enforcing its pro-life law. Sending the case back to that court means that the high court could hear it again.
The Biden administration has been in a never-ending struggle over whether states can enforce pro-life legislation that contradicts federal executive action. The Supreme Court has avoided ruling one way or the other for now with its decision in the Idaho case.
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