AAMC Joins Amicus Brief in Newly Filed Challenge to Idaho Abortion Ban 

The AAMC on Jan. 17 joined the American Hospital Association and America’s Essential Hospitals in an amicus brief (PDF) filed in a federal district court in support of St. Luke’s Health Care System’s motion for a preliminary injunction against an Idaho law that criminalizes the termination of a pregnancy even when it is medically necessary and required to stabilize a patient under the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA).   

St. Luke’s filed a Jan. 14 complaint and motion for injunctive relief to maintain the district court’s jurisdiction over the case in the event the Department of Health and Human Services no longer wishes to pursue the case it filed against Idaho in 2022. The case involves an Idaho statute that makes it a crime for health care providers to terminate a pregnancy without making an exception for stabilizing care, as EMTALA requires. Physicians and other providers seeking to comply with EMTALA based on their medical judgment could face felony charges and the loss of their professional licenses.  

The brief explains that the threat of criminal and professional sanctions interferes with the exercise of expert medical judgment and chills even the provision of care that would ultimately be adjudicated lawful. The brief reviews provisions of EMTALA and the Affordable Care Act, arguing that Congress recognized that, in some cases, termination would be deemed medically necessary to stabilize a pregnant woman experiencing an emergency medical condition.