On April 24, 2024, The United States Supreme Court began oral arguments on a case that could reverse decades of precedent and prevent pregnant people from getting the health care they need in emergency medical situations. 

What is The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act?

The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) is a nearly 40-year-old federal law requiring hospitals to provide treatment for emergency medical complications. 

But now, conservatives in Idaho who oppose abortion are trying to ignore decades of legal precedent and exclude pregnant people from EMTALA’s protections. The case which the Supreme Court is expected to rule on in June is just one of many recent attacks by conservatives on abortion, fertility treatment, and reproductive health care. 

Without EMTALA, a hospital could refuse to treat a pregnant person experiencing a health emergency and deny abortion care even if it endangers the life of the mother. 

If the Supreme Court sides with abortion opponents, it could be catastrophic, even deadly, for the health outcomes of pregnant people.

Conservative Attacks on Abortion are Extreme and Out-of-Touch 

Anti-abortion conservatives want to prohibit doctors from fulfilling their federally mandated duty to care for patients in need of emergency medical care.

Everyone should be able to get the emergency care they need, including pregnant people. This case has nationwide implications for the right to emergency abortion care and is part of an extreme, out-of-touch agenda to ban abortion altogether. 

We need leaders who will reduce barriers to and protect access to safe, legal abortion, not strip away our rights and devastate reproductive health care.  

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