For Immediate Release
Contact: David Reinbold, dreinbold@americanhumanist.org
(June 27, 2024, Washington, D.C.) — Today the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to dismiss Moyle v. US, lifting a stay it had previously placed on a federal district court order in Idaho to limit emergency abortions there. With the court’s decision today, emergency abortions can resume in Idaho to protect the health and safety of pregnant patients.
While we welcome today’s decision, it is by no means a victory for abortion and reproductive rights. The district court order will stay in place while the litigation moves forward, likely to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Today’s Supreme Court decision was arrived at as “improvidently granted,” indicating the court’s apprehension to answer broader questions about the intersection of state abortion bans and a federal law enacted in 1986 called The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). EMTALA requires hospitals with emergency departments that receive federal Medicare and Medicaid funding to examine and treat individuals with an emergency medical condition.
Without further guidance on this issue, pregnant patients requiring emergency abortions who are in other states with ongoing abortion bans could experience similar legal and medical roadblocks as seen in Idaho.
In short, our highest court in the land had the opportunity to clarify that states cannot preempt federal laws like EMTALA and to decisively put an end to the chaos and confusion that surrounds conflicting laws around abortion care. Instead, the Court’s majority chose to kick the proverbial can down the road rather than take decisive action to save lives. The Court’s diffident decision today shows a flagrant disregard for the lives of pregnant people and threatens their wellbeing in a medical emergency.
“The same Supreme Court that erroneously overturned Roe v. Wade could never be trusted to protect emergency abortion care. While the Supreme Court plays politics and forces through a highly unpopular agenda aimed at controlling all pregnancy outcomes in the United States, people’s lives hang in the balance,” said Lily Bolourian, Legal and Policy Director for the American Humanist Association. “I am relieved that people in Idaho can exhale a bit today but this fight is far from over. We renew our calls for accountability on the high court and immediate Congressional action to save thousands of lives.”
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The American Humanist Association (AHA) works to protect the rights of humanists, atheists, and other nontheistic Americans. The AHA advances the ethical and life-affirming worldview of humanism, which—without beliefs in gods or other supernatural forces—encourages individuals to live informed and meaningful lives that aspire to the greater good of humanity.