SCOTUS Abortion case examines what care doctors can provide in emergency rooms
According to data from the National Institutes of Health - 1 in 3 women will visit the emergency room during pregnancy.
WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - This week at the Supreme Court, Justices will hear arguments in a case of which law takes precedent, State, or Federal.
It deals with EMTALA - the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act.
Alexa Kolbi-Molinas with the ACLU explains.
“It says that every hospital must provide whatever treatment is necessary to any individual who comes to that hospital’s emergency room experiencing an emergency medical condition,” said Kolbi-Molinas.
Idaho’s laws ban doctors from performing emergency abortions unless the woman is near death.
“Doctors are being placed in a position where they have to choose between criminal liability, the potential that they could go to jail, or offering life and health saving care that their patients need”, said Skye Perryman, CEO of Democracy Forward.
“It’s replacing their medical judgment with a legal judgment,” said Lawyer Lindsay Harrison, who represents St. Luke’s hospital system, the largest private employer in Idaho.
According to data from the National Institutes of Health - 1 in 3 women will visit the emergency room during pregnancy.
This case finds itself at the confluence of medicine, law, and politics.
For pro-life congressman Tim Burchett, it’s an issue of morality.
“The politics of this - we’ve got an election coming up - you know and everyone is worried about what the polls say, they need to worry about what their conscience says,” said Burchett.
Oral arguments will be heard Wednesday, with decision expected by June.
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