How Idaho became ground zero in the federal-state abortion fight | The Hill

DOJ claims the Idaho law conflicts with, and is preempted by, a federal law called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), which requires hospitals receiving Medicare funding to provide emergency care to those who come to their emergency rooms with conditions that seriously jeopardize their health. Emergency conditions include dangerous pregnancy complications such as an ectopic pregnancy that could cause a woman to bleed to death, sepsis that could result in organ failure and life-threatening eclampsia. The DOJ correctly asserts that Idaho s total abortion ban preemptively criminalizes all abortions&even where a denial of care will likely result in the death of the patient. It seeks a court ruling that the law cannot apply in the emergency room setting.

It is not clear why the DOJ selected Idaho as the test case for the EMTALA suit, but the state has certainly been a hotbed for anti-abortion legislation. It currently has three laws on the books the total abortion ban, a law prohibiting an abortion after detection of a fetal heartbeat and a Texas-style bounty law that gives the abortion patient and her family members the right to each recover a minimum amount of $20,000 from an abortion provider.

via thehill.com

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