Nearly 6,000 doctors from all 50 states — including 113 from Virginia — have drafted a letter asking the US Supreme Court to uphold a federal law that requires hospital emergency departments to provide abortions when they are needed to stabilize patients.
The letter concerns the case Idaho v. United States, which the court heard in April.
In that case, the federal government has argued that the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act — a 1986 law known as EMTALA — requires that hospitals participating in the federal Medicare program provide abortions if doing so is the necessary treatment in an emergency. Idaho has contested that interpretation, and argued that its state-level abortion ban supersedes federal law. Idaho’s current ban allows an exception only if the procedure will save the life of the pregnant person, but not if it will otherwise preserve their health.
It’s not clear how the Supreme Court will rule, but their decision could have implications well beyond abortion.
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