Biden administration reminds doctors of their ‘duty’ to provide emergency abortions following Supreme Court ruling

After the Supreme Court failed to strike down Idaho ’s restrictive abortion law, the Biden administration said doctors must conform to its interpretation of a federal law mandating emergency abortions even when a woman's life might not be in danger.

On Tuesday, the Biden administration sent a letter to hospitals and healthcare providers saying its understanding of the federal government’s Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act overrides state laws such as Idaho. The letter comes after the Supreme Court shifted the DOJ's lawsuit to Idaho's 9th Circuit.

“Federal EMTALA requirements have not changed: EMTALA requires that hospitals offer stabilizing treatment, including abortion care (or transfer, if appropriate) when necessary to stabilize the patient’s emergency medical condition,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure wrote. The officials reminded doctors of "hospital’s legal duty" to provide qualifying emergency abortions, adding, "If a pregnant patient presenting at an emergency department, including certain labor and delivery departments, is experiencing an emergency medical condition as defined by EMTALA, and that abortion is the stabilizing treatment necessary to resolve that condition, the provider must offer that treatment."

The tug of war between the DOJ and Idaho comes down to a difference in interpretation of EMTALA . In August of 2022, the DOJ sued Idaho over its Defense of Life Act, saying it violated EMTALA emergency protections which consider abortions to be “stabilizing” emergency care. As it stands, Idaho’s abortion law provides exceptions for abortions to be performed in cases of rape, incest, and to protect the life of the mother. However, its definition of EMTALA is narrower than the Biden administration’s interpretation of the law.

The DOJ states that in accordance with EMTALA, states must provide exceptions for abortions to be performed, not just when the mother’s life is in question, but also when a pregnancy could hurt her health.

After the Supreme Court issued the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, HHS issued a directive to doctors and healthcare providers saying that EMTALA usurps states such as Idaho that have a narrower definition of the abortion exception for the life of the mother. “When a state’s law prohibits abortion and does not include an exception for the life and health of the pregnant person — or draws the exception more narrowly than EMTALA’s emergency medical condition definition — that state law is preempted,” the letter said.

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Idaho has pushed back against the Biden administration’s lawsuit, saying that "construing EMTALA as a federal abortion mandate raises grave questions under the major questions doctrine that affect both Congress and this Court."

In an op-ed , Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador claimed his state was in full compliance with federal law. "Idaho’s law allows doctors to treat women in all emergency situations according to their best and good-faith medical judgment," he wrote.