Republican Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador said Thursday he is confident about the legal fight ahead after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to rule on the merits of a case challenging the Gem State's abortion restrictions.
The unsigned order from the justices in the case of Moyle v. United States leaves in place a ruling by an Idaho federal judge that temporarily blocked the state from enforcing its abortion ban, which has exceptions only to save the life of the mother and in cases of rape or incest, to the extent that it conflicts with the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA). That 1986 federal law requires emergency rooms in hospitals that receive Medicare to provide "necessary stabilizing treatment" to patients who arrive with an "emergency medical condition."
The order came a day after a draft of the ruling reportedly was "mistakenly" published on the Supreme Court's website.
The Biden administration sued Idaho in 2022, shortly after the Supreme Court overturned the federal right to an abortion, which triggered Idaho's restrictions to take effect. The administration argued that in certain rare and extreme emergencies, abortion could constitute a medically stabilizing treatment under EMTALA and that denying abortions in non-life-threatening medical emergencies violated federal law.
Labrador told reporters following the Supreme Court's decision that he is confident the lower courts will dismiss the Biden administration's case.
"I remain committed to protect unborn life and ensure women in Idaho receive necessary medical care, and I will continue my outreach to doctors and hospitals across Idaho to ensure that they understand what our law requires," Labrador said, according to the Washington Examiner. "We look forward to ending this administration's relentless overreach into Idahoans' right to protect and defend life."
The decision to send the case back to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was supported by three conservative justices — Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, and Chief Justice John Roberts — because of concessions made by the Biden administration that the mental health of the mother does not constitute a medical emergency, the Examiner reported.
Labrador said because the three other Republican-appointed judges — Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Neil Gorsuch — agreed with his office's interpretation of EMTALA, he is confident the 9th Circuit will rule in Idaho's favor.
"What is clear is that the majority of the Supreme Court understood that either the interpretation of the U.S. government was wrong, as the dissent said, or, as the three conservatives said in their move to go to the 9th Circuit, that the [federal government's] interpretation would have been severely limited by their concessions," Labrador said, according to the Examiner. "So we feel pretty strongly that we're going to win this case in the end."