Planned Parenthood Great Plains Responds to Supreme Court Decision to Dismiss EMTALA Case; Leaving Emergency Abortion Care Under Threat
For Immediate Release: June 27, 2024
Today the U.S. Supreme Court failed to rule in a case where Idaho seeks to block life-saving care, including emergency abortion care under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). The ruling sends it back to the lower courts, leaving emergency abortion access under threat across the country.
EMTALA has long been understood to protect emergency abortion care when it is the necessary treatment for a pregnant person experiencing a medical emergency. Enacted in 1986, EMTALA is a federal law that requires hospital emergency rooms that take Medicare funding to provide necessary treatment to people experiencing medical emergencies.
Statement from Emily Wales, president and CEO, Planned Parenthood Great Plains:
"Today’s ruling is only a momentary sigh of relief in an ongoing, manufactured health care crisis. Despite the opportunity to make clear that EMTALA requires access to abortion care in an emergency, our Supreme Court chose not to. This isn’t a tough question: Do patients in every state of the country deserve access to critical, life-saving care? Instead of a resounding ‘yes,’ the health and lives of pregnant people continue to be at risk. Two years ago this week, the Supreme Court made the devastating decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and since that day, we have seen the chaos and confusion caused by abortion bans, preventing doctors from providing appropriate medical care to patients when they need it the most. Planned Parenthood Great Plains remains committed to making safe reproductive health care accessible to as many patients as possible."