New York Attorney General Letitia James issued a sharp response to Idaho's near-total abortion ban that is being challenged in the Supreme Court this week.
Idaho enacted a new law, the Defense of Life Act, in 2020 that bans abortions being carried out at all stages of pregnancy, with very few exceptions. The law went into effect in 2022 when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
The law stipulates that anyone who performs an abortion outside of the limited exceptions is subject to criminal penalties, including up to five years in prison. Health care professionals could also lose their professional licenses.
Commenting on the law on Wednesday, James wrote on X, formerly Twitter: "This isn't complicated. No one should be denied medical treatment during a life-threatening emergency."
Idaho's law bans nearly all abortions unless they are required to prevent a mother's death.
President Joe Biden's administration sued Idaho in 2022, arguing that its near-total ban could violate a 1986 federal law, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), which requires hospitals receiving funding under the Medicare program to "stabilize" patients with emergency medical conditions. The Biden administration believes this should include abortion in certain contexts.
This week, the Supreme Court is hearing an appeal by Idaho officials to a lower court's ruling that found the EMTALA supersedes the state's ban when the two conflict in rare circumstances. Hospitals that violate EMTALA can face lawsuits, fines and the loss of Medicare funding.
On Wednesday, liberal justices asked Joshua Turner, the lawyer representing Idaho, to explain why the state permits emergency abortions to prevent a woman's death, but not to protect her health. Abortions can be required to address a number of health conditions in pregnant women, including strokes, organ damage or the loss of the uterus, according to medical experts.
Liberal Justice Elena Kagan said on Wednesday: "Within rare cases, there's a significant number where the woman...her life is not in peril, but she's going to lose her reproductive organs, she's going to lose the ability to have children in the future, unless an abortion takes place."
She added: "If the woman is going to lose her reproductive organs, that's enough to trigger this duty on the part of the hospital to stabilize the patient."
Turner said that these situations were "difficult" and raised "tough medical questions that implicate deeply theological and moral questions."
Meanwhile, conservative justices voiced concerns regarding the Biden administration's legal challenge. Justice Samuel Alito told Elizabeth Prelogar, the US Solicitor General representing the administration, that EMTALA also requires care to stabilize a woman's unborn child. "Performing an abortion is antithetical to that duty," he said.
In response to the case, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on X: "The MAGA Supreme Court majority appears ready to rule that the right to 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness' doesn't extend to women with pregnancy complications or who otherwise need abortions.
"This is horrifying, and it is because of Donald Trump."
Newsweek reached out to Donald Trump's press team and the Supreme Court for comment outside of normal working hours.
Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic senator from Massachusetts, said: "Imagine having a serious pregnancy complication and being denied the abortion care your doctors tell you is needed to protect your health.
"An extremist Supreme Court stacked with Trump-appointed justices could make that tragedy a reality for Americans across the country."
Alexis McGill Johnson, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood, wrote: "The state of Idaho is literally arguing for the right to deny patients emergency abortion care, even if it means it could stabilize their lives or even if it means that they could die.
"So let me say that again, the Supreme Court will soon decide if our opponents really have the right to let us die because they disagree with abortion care."
It is not clear yet how the court will rule. However, because the court has a 6-3 conservative majority, the Biden administration requires at least two conservative justices to join the three liberals and side with the federal government.
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Matthew Robinson is the Newsweek U.S. News Editor based in London, U.K. His focus is U.S. politics and national news. ... Read more
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