This article first appeared in The 19th* The Supreme Court will allow Idaho hospital physicians to provide abortions when they are needed in medical emergencies, the court ruled Thursday, in an opinion that was briefly made public Wednesday and reported by Bloomberg. The writing represents a meaningful — if temporary — victory for health care providers. The court has dismissed the case and returned it to lower courts for further litigation.
Samuel Alito, once of the court’s conservative members, echoed those criticisms in a dissent, arguing that the Supreme Court has all the information it needs already to rule on the relationship between EMTALA and state abortion laws. “That question is as ripe for decision as it ever will be. Apparently, the Court has simply lost the will to decide the easy but emotional and highly politicized question that the case presents. That is regrettable,” he wrote.