WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Tuesday sued Idaho over a strict state abortion law coming into effect this month that the Justice Department said would ban emergency room physicians from performing abortions necessary to maintain the health of women living in medical emergencies are stabilized.
The lawsuit, announced by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, is the first Biden government to challenge access to abortion since the Supreme Court ruling in late June that ended the constitutional right to terminate pregnancies.
Since then, Mr. Garland on Tuesday at a news conference on: “There have been widespread reports of delays and refusals of treatment for pregnant women who are in emergencies.” The lawsuit states that a federal law called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act prohibits states from imposing restrictions that would prevent emergency room physicians from treating these women.
“If a patient enters the emergency room with a medical emergency that endangers the patient’s life or health, the hospital must provide the treatment needed to stabilize that patient,” said Mr. Garland. “This includes abortion if that’s the necessary treatment.”
The lawsuit came as Kansas voters went to the polls to decide whether to overturn a 2019 state Supreme Court ruling interpreting the state’s constitution as protecting abortion rights. The vote is the first referendum on abortion rights since the US Supreme Court ruling in late June.
Last month, after the federal Department of Health and Human Services issued guidelines to guarantee access to abortion in certain emergency situations in hospitals receiving Medicare funding, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit to challenge the rules.
The new case raises similar legal concerns over the scope of the federal law protecting emergency room physicians who decide that abortions are necessary to treat dangerous pregnancy complications that do not directly threaten a patient’s life. This time, however, the federal government is the plaintiff, not the defendant.
The Justice Department is also demanding an injunction banning Idaho from enforcing its strict abortion law for doctors, nurses and lab technicians who assist with emergency abortions — including cases where women face conditions such as ectopic pregnancies, severe preeclampsia, or pregnancy complications. that threaten septic infections or bleeding.
Idaho’s near-total abortion ban included a trigger that would make it go into effect shortly after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion law. Because the court made such a ruling earlier this summer, the Idaho law will go into effect in about three weeks.
The law prohibits abortion except when necessary to save a pregnant woman’s life – but not to protect her health – or in cases of rape or incest previously reported to authorities.
It allows law enforcement officers to arrest and charge a doctor when an abortion has been performed, regardless of the circumstances; it is up to the doctor as a defense to prove in court that one of the narrow exceptions to the prohibition applied. As a result, critics of the law say doctors will be afraid to perform abortions under any circumstances.
Justice Department lawsuit demands a court ruling that Idaho law is invalid when applied to situations covered by the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act because the U.S. Constitution overruled federal law above state law where the two conflict.
“Even in dire situations that could qualify for the limited affirmative defense of Idaho’s law to prevent the death of the pregnant woman, some health care providers may withhold care based on a well-founded fear of criminal prosecution,” the complaint reads. of the department.
It continued: “Idaho’s abortion law will therefore prevent physicians from performing abortions even when a physician determines that abortion is the medically necessary treatment to prevent serious risks to the patient’s health and even in cases where refusal of care is likely to result in the death of the pregnant woman will lead. patiently.”
Vanita Gupta, assistant attorney general and head of a Justice Department’s reproductive rights task force, appeared alongside Mr. Garland and said her task force was reviewing the “rapidly changing landscape” of legal restrictions on state abortion since the Supreme Court. had studied. Court ruling. She suggested that more lawsuits were likely to follow.
“We know these are terrifying and uncertain times for pregnant women and their caregivers,” she said. “The Justice Department, through its task force, is committed to doing everything we can to ensure continued, legal access to reproductive services.”
