U.S. judge blocks Idaho abortion ban in emergencies
STORY: A federal U.S judge has temporally blocked part of Idaho’s near total ban on abortions.
District Judge B. Lynn Winmill issued a preliminary injunction, citing a threat to pregnant women who may require emergency care.
The ruling sides with the Biden administration and the U.S. department of Justice that the conservative state’s anti-abortion “trigger” law violates existing health law.
The 1986 federal law, known as the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, ensures patients can receive emergency "stabilizing care”.
It's a key legal challenge for abortion rights after Roe V. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court in June.
Boston University Professor of Law and Health Law Nicole Huberfeld says the Idaho ruling protects physicians and patients.
“If a physician has to perform an abortion because there's an emergency medical condition that requires it, EMTALA would prevent the Idaho law from kicking into effect and giving authority to the state to prosecute that physician.
"If the medical emergency is a rapidly developing cancer and that person must have treatment to live, then that's the medical emergency is treating the cancer and the pregnancy would have to be secondary to the treatment. Some people can be treated for different kind of medical conditions during their pregnancy perfectly safely without jeopardizing the pregnancy. So that's why I say it really depends on the circumstances. And this is why I believe the Biden administration is saying this is something that needs to stay in the hands of health care providers because they're the ones who will know whether something is, medically speaking, an emergency or not."
The Idaho ruling comes one day after a judge in Texas ruled against the Biden administration on the same issue.
The cases are two of the first lawsuits over the Democratic administration's attempts to ease abortion access.
Appeals are expected in both cases.
Legal experts believe that if the opposing rulings are upheld, the Supreme Court could feel pressured to wade back into the debate.
