April 23, 2024
Washington–The Idaho Attorney General’s Office will appear tomorrow morning before the U.S. Supreme Court to present oral arguments in defense of the state’s Defense of Life Act. The AG’s Office released the following statement this morning about the case:
The Office of the Idaho Attorney General, with the assistance of experienced Supreme Court litigators from ADF and Cooper & Kirk PLLC, is asking the nation’s high court to prevent the Biden administration from manipulating federal law to override Idaho’s Defense of Life Act. Idaho’s law protects the lives of women and their unborn children, preventing doctors from performing abortions unless necessary to save the life of the mother or in cases of rape or incest. Contrary to what the administration argues, Idaho’s law is fully consistent with federal law.
“The administration’s radical interpretation of federal law is nothing more than a lawless disregard for Idaho’s right to protect life,” Labrador said. “Idaho’s Defense of Life Act is perfectly consistent with the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, which provides explicit protections for ‘unborn children’ in four separate places. But the Biden administration is trying to use one life-affirming law to invalidate another. We are asking the Supreme Court to end the administration’s unlawful overreach and to respect the decision of the people of Idaho to safeguard the lives of women and their unborn children.”
In August 2022, the Biden administration sued Idaho, claiming that EMTALA preempts Idaho’s protections for life and requires emergency room doctors to perform abortions that are unlawful in Idaho. But no conflict exists between EMTALA and Idaho’s law, as both seek to save lives, and neither force doctors to perform abortions in emergency rooms. After a lower court upheld the administration’s attempt to rewrite EMTALA and prevented Idaho from enforcing its law, the Supreme Court agreed to review the case and fully restored Idaho’s law while the case continues.
