A federal judge blocked part of Idaho’s near-total abortion ban. The judge sided with the Biden administration in the key test case for what legal strategies might prevail in a post-Roe America.
U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill in Boise, Idaho issued a preliminary injunction, ruling that the state law, which was set to take effect today, does not provide adequate protection for physicians who perform abortions during a medical emergency, and therefore runs afoul of federal law guaranteeing patients the right to treatment when their health or life is at risk.
Winmill said the court did not find the state’s argument persuasive, because it failed to properly account for the staggeringly broad scope of its law, which has been accurately characterized by this Court and the Idaho Supreme Court as a ‘Total Abortion Ban.’
The challenge presented by the federal government represents one of its most aggressive actions to try and preserve abortion rights after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, ending the national constitutional right to an abortion.
The lawsuit followed weeks of complaints from Democratic advocates and elected officials that the administration has not done enough to push back as abortion access has crumbled in nearly a dozen states.
This is one of many cases playing out across the country. But this particular one concerns whether states enacting near-total bans are preempting the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, known as EMTALA.
That decades-old federal law requires healthcare workers to provide treatment that stabilizes a patient experiencing a medical emergency, and the Biden administration released guidance in July warning doctors and hospitals that EMTALA applies even if the required treatment is an abortion — no matter what state law says on abortions.
The case in Idaho is being watched closely, with attorneys general from more than half of the states submitting friends-of-the-court briefs. Red states are siding with Idaho, and blue states, with the Biden administration.
The ruling yesterday still does allow Idaho to ban nearly all abortions, except in cases of rape, incest, or threats to the mother’s life.
The only thing it does is prevent prosecutors from charging doctors with felonies if they perform an abortion for a patient in a medical emergency and are unable to prove the operation was necessary to save the patient’s life.
Idaho is expected to appeal the ruling to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which has gotten more conservative over the past few years and may not hold up the decision.
The Idaho decision also comes only a day after a federal judge in Texas, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, blocked the Biden administration’s guidance on abortion in medical emergencies inside of Texas.
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