Supreme Court Allows Emergency Abortions in Idaho

An Idaho federal district court judge placed a preliminary injunction on part of Idaho’s law in August 2022. “It’s not about the bygone constitutional right to an abortion,” Judge B. Lynn Winmill wrote. “The court is called upon to address a far more modest issue whether Idaho’s criminal abortion statute conflicts with a small but important corner of federal legislation. It does.”

Idaho appealed, and the Supreme Court reversed the block in January, allowing the law to be enforced while the legal battle continued.

“The on-the-ground impact was immediate,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote in a concurring opinion on Thursday. “To ensure appropriate medical care, the State’s largest provider of emergency services had to airlift pregnant women out of Idaho roughly every other week, compared to once in all of the prior year (when the injunction was in effect).”

With Thursday’s decision, the Supreme Court has dismissed Idaho’s appeals, allowing doctors to provide health-preserving abortions in the state while the case continues.

“With this Court’s writ of certiorari dismissed, the lower courts can proceed with this litigation in the regular course. And with this Court’s stay dissolved, the District Court’s preliminary injunction will again take effect,” wrote Kagan. “That will prevent Idaho from enforcing its abortion ban when the termination of a pregnancy is needed to prevent serious harms to a woman’s health.”

via reason.com

Idaho! In the news!

I wonder when was the last time there was a woman in Idaho who required an emergency abortion. But I suppose it’s possible. Unlike a man who requires an emergency abortion.

When NPR covered this story, I noticed they were careful to refer to “pregnant persons,” because men, NPR probably thinks, can get pregnant too, you know.