The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Idaho on Tuesday for restricting access to abortion to patients who need life-saving medical treatment, representing the department’s first challenge of its kind after the Roe vs. Wade annulment in June.
The controversial Idaho law that will take effect next August 25 prohibits all abortions except in cases of incest or rape that are reported to law enforcement, or when a physician determines “in his or her good faith medical judgment and based on the facts known to the physician at this time, that the abortion was necessary to prevent the death of pregnant woman.”
Merrick Garland, the United States attorney general, argued Tuesday that the Idaho law could violate the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, which requires doctors to treat stabilizer, reported Fox News.
“When u “As a hospital determines that an abortion is the necessary medical treatment to stabilize a patient’s emergency medical condition, federal law requires that treatment be provided,” Garland told reporters. “Although Idaho law provides an exception to prevent the death of a pregnant woman, it does not include an exception for cases in which abortion is necessary to avoid a serious risk to the woman’s health.”
For his part, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Xavier Becerra, pointed out that patients have the right to stabilize care in the hospital emergency room regardless of state law.
“Women should not have to be close to death to receive care,” Becerra said in a statement.
The secretary specified that he will continue to work with the Department of Justice in order to enforce the federal law that protects access to medical care, including abortions.1200
In addition, Becerra issued a guide for health care providers last month, which states that doctors must perform the abortion if it is the stabilizing treatment necessary to resolve an emergency medical condition.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxon filed a lawsuit challenging that guidance, arguing that the Biden Administration is “blatantly ignoring the process legislative and dramatic” by ordering that hospitals and emergency doctors must perform abortions.