-- Shares Facebook Twitter Reddit Email Last week, the Supreme Court dismissed a case brought forth by Idaho that challenged doctors' ability to provide emergency abortions to stabilize a patient’s health and life. As a result, for now, Idaho’s near-total abortion ban does not take precedence over a federal law known as the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), which is a welcome relief for many doctors on the frontlines. “EMTALA, as we previously understood it, is now fully functional in Idaho, so we can provide stabilizing, emergency care to pregnant women if that requires an abortion,” Kara Cadwallader, who is a family medicine physician in Idaho, told Salon in a phone interview.
“That was the good news, because it's been pretty awful not having that protection in place.” But Cadwallader said, what many others have echoed since the decision, that it would have been better if SCOTUS ruled that EMTALA protects everyone. As far as how long, and if, EMTALA will project pregnant women in Idaho remains unclear — and there are still many scenarios in which doctors feel as if their hands are tied.
Related Medical school graduates are avoiding states with abortion bans. Experts warn it could cause chaos As Salon has previously reported , Idaho has one of the strictest abortion laws in the nation where abortions are nearly entirely banned except in cases of documented rape or incest, or to prevent the mother's death. Physicians in Idaho have previously to.
