The Supreme Court has blocked an order from the Biden administration that attempted to force Idaho ER doctors to perform abortions.
The Biden administration attempted to stop a new Idaho law that banned all abortions except those that are performed with the intention of saving the life of the mother.
The Biden administration attempted to circumvent the law using the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act of 1986 in order to force emergency room doctors to perform abortions.
That order has been put on pause and the Supreme Court will fully review the Biden administration's argument in April.
The Biden administration threatened hospitals who failed to comply with their new order with lost funding and the inability to participate in Medicaid.
The Biden administration thought that they could simply bully individual hospitals and doctors into performing abortions.
However, thanks to the Supreme Court, that authoritarian strategy has failed and the Biden administration is being forced to accept the fact that abortion is legally dubious.
Ever since the Supreme Court made the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, it has been a constant battle to clamp down on rogue government entities that have attempted to uphold and protect abortion.
The Biden administration first sued Idaho in 2022 over it's reading of EMTALA that conflicted with the federal reading.
The Biden administration is arguing that EMTALA requires emergency room physicians to perform abortions.
However, Idaho argued that EMTALA was intended to combat “patient dumping,” which is when hospitals refused to treat patients without the ability to pay for emergency care. It seems likely that the conservative Supreme Court will be inclined to rule in favor of Idaho's original intent argument.
The Biden administration has a concerning habit of taking obscure parts of law and radically reinterpreting it to fit some issue that said law was never intended to address.
This kind of legal gamesmanship has been a common habit and favorite tactic of an administration that has done everything in its power to avoid the Supreme Court.
Thankfully, the Biden administration will stand before the Supreme Court in a few months and they will be able to put this case to bed for good.
