Last week, the Supreme Court dismissed a case brought forth by Idaho that challenged doctors' ability to provide emergency abortions to stabilize a patient’s health and life. As a result, for now, Idaho’s near-total abortion ban does not take precedence over a federal law known as the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), which is a welcome relief for many doctors on the frontlines.
“EMTALA, as we previously understood it, is now fully functional in Idaho, so we can provide stabilizing, emergency care to pregnant women if that requires an abortion,” Kara Cadwallader, who is a family medicine physician in Idaho, told Salon in a phone interview. “That was the good news, because it's been pretty awful not having that protection in place.”
