Medical groups, 20 states weigh in on Idaho abortion lawsuit

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A legal battle over abortion rights pitting one of the country’s reddest states against the U.S. government has dozens of states and major medical associations seeking to intervene.

Twenty states, Washington, DC, the American College of Emergency Physicians, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Academy of Pediatrics and others are among those that have filed “friend of the court” reports as of Wednesday, siding with the federal government’s claims that Idaho’s near-total abortion ban violates federal health care law.

“It’s really going to put doctors in a win-win situation,” said Jeff Dubner, deputy legal director for Democracy Forward, the legal team that represents the coalition of medical associations.

Physicians who comply with federal law will be at risk of criminal prosecution and loss of their medical license, Dubner said, and those who comply with state law could harm the health of patients and put them and their hospitals at risk of federal fines or loss of funds. .

Idaho’s abortion ban makes almost any abortion a felony, but allows doctors to defend themselves in court by showing that the procedure was necessary to save a patient’s life. The federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act requires Medicaid-funded hospitals to provide “stabilizing” treatment to patients experiencing medical emergencies, and the US Department of Justice says that includes some abortions.

The Justice Department sued Idaho earlier this month in federal court, asking a judge to stop the abortion ban from going into effect.

Idaho’s neighbors in Oregon and Washington were among the states that joined in filing another friend-of-the-court brief, saying they fear the “side effect” an abortion ban could create, as Idaho patients with pregnancies ectopic or other emergencies are sent to hospitals in Seattle or Portland for treatment.

States further away, like North Carolina, point out that their own pregnant residents could be at risk of death or harm if they get sick while visiting Idaho.

“Women’s lives are in danger because politicians are trying to take away their right to get the health care they need,” said North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein. “States are trying to ban abortion in all cases, including rape, incest, and when the mother’s health is in danger. Denying health care to women when their life or health is at risk violates federal law. I am taking these steps to help North Carolinians who may need urgent care in other states, as well as other women across our nation.”

Even if the federal government wins the case, most abortions are likely to remain banned in Idaho, where three major abortion bans have been enacted in the last two years.

In court documents, medical organizations argued that the ban’s “life of the mother” provision is too narrow to apply to real-life medical situations and fails to take into account how quickly a pregnancy complication can occur. become deadly.

In the case of a pregnant patient with severe bleeding, “how many units of blood does she have to lose? A? Two? Five?” The organizations wrote in court documents. “How fast does she have to be bleeding? Soaking two sanitary napkins an hour? Three? How low does her blood pressure have to be?

Other professional organizations that have signed the friend-of-the-court brief include the American Medical Association, the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, the National Medical Association, the National Hispanic Medical Association, the American Academy of Family Physicians, and the American Public Health Association. . The American Hospital Association and the Association of American Medical Colleges wrote a separate report that also supports the Justice Department.

Meanwhile, the states noted in court documents that abortion bans in other states have already led to delays or denials of emergency medical care.

A patient traveled to Michigan after she was denied care for an ectopic pregnancy in her home state because the fetus still had detectable heart activity, making an abortion potentially illegal under so-called heartbeat laws, the report said. .

In Missouri, a hospital required special approval from a pharmacist to dispense medications needed to stop severe bleeding that occurred after patients gave birth, leading to delays in care. And a Wisconsin patient who was having a miscarriage was bleeding in the hospital for 10 days before the hospital removed the fetal tissue due to confusion over the legality of the procedure, the states said.

California, New York, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Washington State, and Washington , DC, all signed the friend of the court brief.

Lawyers representing the state of Idaho and the Idaho Legislature have argued that the US Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade gave states the right to determine if and how abortions will be handled, and that the state law, called Statute 622, does not actually present any risk to patients or providers.

“The government’s image of a conflict between (the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act) and Statute 622 is fabricated and false, with no basis in fact,” attorney Daniel Bower wrote for the Legislature.

Treatment of an ectopic pregnancy is not actually an abortion, and therefore the state’s ban does not prohibit it, the Legislature holds. Abortions performed to save the life of the mother will not be affected by the law, Bower wrote, and any other emergency abortions that may be affected are extremely rare.

When they do occur, the doctors will not be prosecuted, Bower wrote in the brief.

“The prosecutors of this state, in the standard and ordinary exercise of their prosecutorial discretion, will not question the judgments and decisions of the medical professionals involved,” Bower said.

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Hannah Schoenbaum contributed from Raleigh, North Carolina. Schoenbaum is a staff member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercover issues.

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