The White House on Thursday hailed a court decision that kept Idaho’s abortion ban from taking effect because part of it may violate a federal law requiring doctors to offer emergency care.
Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the ban, which was set to go into effect Thursday, was in direct conflict with the federal law, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, that requires hospitals accepting Medicare to offer stabilizing treatment — including an abortion — if they are in distress.
“This ruling will prevent serious harm to women in Idaho,” Ms. Jean-Pierre said. “Yet, just Tuesday, a Texas court issued a devastating decision for women in that state, who can now be denied this same life-saving care, and who may die as a result.”
Judge B. Lynn Winmill issued the Idaho injunction Wednesday after the Justice Department sued the state earlier this month.
The judge said the court was not wading into the big fight over abortion after the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to the procedure in Roe v. Wade.
“The court is called upon to address a far more modest issue — whether Idaho’s criminal abortion statute conflicts with a small but important corner of federal legislation. It does,” wrote the judge, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton.
In the other ruling, Judge James Wesley Hendrix, a Trump appointee, said Texas already allows abortions in life-threatening conditions or for the removal of an ectopic pregnancy. He also said the Department of Health and Human Services issued its guidance for doctors without following federal law, requiring a period of time for notice and public comment.
The guidance “goes well beyond EMTALA’s text, which protects both mothers and unborn children, is silent as to abortion, and preempts state law only when the two directly conflict,” Judge Hendrix wrote.
Pro-life groups hailed the Texas decision, saying it would prevent ERs from becoming state abortion facilities.
Pro-choice Democrats, meanwhile, are using the issue as a cudgel against the GOP ahead of the midterm elections.
“Republican legislators continue to deny women’s access to health care,” Ms. Jean-Pierre said. “And, they are committed to moving America backward — with fewer rights and less autonomy.”
• Alex Swoyer contributed to this report.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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