By Alliance Defending Freedom

Today, the Office of the Idaho Attorney General, assisted by attorneys with Alliance Defending Freedom and Cooper & Kirk, will be standing before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Idaho will be urging the court to protect its pro-life law from the efforts of the Biden administration to twist a federal law to override it and FORCE emergency room doctors to perform abortions.

This is a huge case, and lives are at stake.

So, what is this case about?

It’s about a federal law, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), a Reagan-era law that requires emergency rooms to provide or help facilitate life-saving care to those unable to pay, including pregnant women and their unborn children. And it’s about a life-affirming law passed by the elected representatives of Idaho that protects the lives of women and their unborn children and prevents doctors from performing abortions unless necessary to save the life of the mother.

Both laws seek to protect life—including women and their unborn children.

So, what’s the problem?

In August 2022—just weeks after Roe v. Wade was overturned–the Biden administration sued the State of Idaho in an attempt to override the state’s law and use EMTALA [Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act] to mandate that emergency room doctors end the lives of the unborn by performing abortions.

This was a clear attempt to upend the demonstrated desire of the people of Idaho and their elected representatives to protect the lives of women and their unborn children. It also blatantly misconstrues EMTALA. The Biden administration tells emergency room doctors that they must perform abortions—destroy life—when the law itself expressly requires in four separate places that they care for both pregnant women and their “unborn child[ren].”

That’s why we’re proud to stand with Idaho, 22 other states, 121 members of Congress, doctors and a broad coalition of policy and advocacy groups to stand up to government overreach and support Idaho’s law that protects life.

If this overreach by the administration is allowed to continue, all manner of state laws could be in jeopardy.

“The Biden administration has no authority to override Idaho’s law and force emergency room doctors to perform abortions. There is no conflict between Idaho’s Defense of Life Act and EMTALA,” said ADF Senior Counsel John Bursch, vice president of appellate advocacy. “Both Idaho’s law and EMTALA seek to protect the lives of women and their unborn children. The Supreme Court should uphold Idaho’s law and ensure that emergency room doctors are not forced to end lives.”

Please keep the outcome of this case in your prayers.