The Supreme Court has dismissed an abortion case from Idaho, a temporary win for abortion rights supporters that will allow women to receive emergency abortions despite the state’s near-total ban.
However, the justices did not address the merits of the case, which focused on a federal law requiring hospitals to provide stabilising treatment to any patient who arrives with an “emergency medical condition”.
The state of Idaho argued that law cannot supersede its abortion ban, which has an exception for the life – but not the health – of the mother.
The Biden administration disagreed, and sued.
The short, unsigned opinion returns the case to a lower court.
It closely resembled a document that briefly appeared on the court’s website the day before, before it was swiftly removed, an apparent leak first reported by Bloomberg.
In a 6-3 vote, three conservative justices sided with all three liberal justices to dismiss the case, writing it had been “improvidently granted”.
The decision will – for now – offer protection from prosecution to doctors who determine an abortion is the best treatment for a patient in jeopardy in states.
But the court’s side-step from the case’s substance means the door remains open to further challenges to Emtala
The decision comes two years after the court rescinded the nationwide guarantee to an abortion by overturning Roe v Wade, allowing states to freely govern abortion access.
This is the second abortion opinion from the highest court in the country this month.
It has also rejected an effort to restrict access to the abortion pill mifepristone. In that case, the court said the plaintiffs did not have the legal right to sue, leaving the door open to other challenges to the drug.
