United States Attorney General Merrick Garland on Tuesday announced that the Department of Justice is suing the state of Idaho over its extreme abortion restrictions.
This is the first case targeting a state law following the Supreme Court's June 24th reversal of Roe versus Wade.
"Today the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against the state of Idaho. The suit seeks to hold invalid the state's criminal prohibition on providing abortions as applied to women who are suffering medical emergencies. Under a federal law, known as the Emergency Medical Treatment And Labor Act – or EMTALA – every hospital that receives Medicare funds must provide necessary stabilizing treatment to a patient who arrives at an emergency room suffering from a medical condition that could place their life or health in serious jeopardy. When a hospital determines that an abortion is the medical treatment necessary to stabilize a patient's emergency medical condition, it is required by federal law to provide that treatment," Garland said at a press conference.
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"As detailed in our complaint, Idado's law would make it a criminal offense for doctors to provide the emergency medical treatment that federal law requires. Although the Idaho law provides an exception to prevent the death of a pregnant woman, it includes no exception for cases in which the abortion is necessary to prevent serious jeopardy to the woman's health," Garland added. "The United States, therefore, seeks a declaratory judgment that Idaho's law violates the supremacy clause of the United States Constitution and is preempted by federal law to the extent it is in conflict with EMTALA."
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