Supreme Court would allow emergency abortions in Idaho, Bloomberg reports

According to the Bloomberg report, the court’s ruling would dismiss the case as “improvidently granted,” meaning that after oral argument, the justices found problems with resolving the issue.

It is extremely rare — perhaps unprecedented — for a Supreme Court ruling to be posted on the court’s website before the ruling is issued, and it is possible that the document that was posted could differ from the opinion when it is announced.

“The Court’s Publications Unit inadvertently and briefly uploaded a document to the Court’s website,” spokeswoman Patricia McCabe said in a statement. “The Court’s opinion in Moyle v. United States and Idaho v. United States will be issued in due course.”

The version of the opinion inadvertently posted Wednesday may not be the final decision.

The White House declined to comment on the ruling until it is issued.

The case centers on the nearly four-decade-old Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, known as EMTALA, which requires hospitals that receive federal funds to stabilize or transfer patients needing emergency care.

The Biden administration sued Idaho in 2022, saying the state’s strict abortion ban conflicts with the law. The administration said EMTALA requires emergency treatment for pregnant women not guaranteed by Idaho’s statute — including abortion — if needed to address threatening health conditions short of death such as organ failure or loss of fertility.

The case is one of two before the high court this term that will shape abortion access nationwide two years after the justices overturned Roe, which had guaranteed a constitutional right to abortion. The justices in early June unanimously rejected a challenge to the widely used abortion medication mifepristone, saying the antiabortion doctors who brought the lawsuit did not have standing to do so.

The Biden administration first turned to EMTALA in late 2021 as a way to try to ensure access to abortion in limited situations. That effort ramped up after the Supreme Court struck down Roe the following summer.

Dan Diamond and Aaron Schaffer contributed to this report.