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  • Press Release

    AAMC Statement on Supreme Court Decision on EMTALA

    Media Contacts

    Stuart Heiser, Senior Media Relations Specialist

    AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) President and CEO David J. Skorton, MD, issued the following statement following the U.S. Supreme Court decision on the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA):

    “The AAMC is pleased that the Supreme Court has reinstated the August 2022 district court preliminary injunction.

    At issue is whether Idaho’s law that bans abortions (unless to save the life of a pregnant woman) violates the federal EMTALA law, which requires treatment to stabilize a patient with an emergency medical condition. The district court properly concluded that because of the conflict between the Idaho law and the federal EMTALA law, physicians were put in an impossible position and that, under the Constitution, EMTALA preempts state law.

    Under the now-reinstated district court’s preliminary injunction, physicians in Idaho can again provide stabilizing care in an emergency setting, which could include abortion, without the threat of criminal prosecution and loss of license.

    The AAMC remains concerned about restrictive state laws that limit access to comprehensive reproductive health care, interfere in the patient-physician relationship, and put pregnant women’s health and lives at risk. We will continue to monitor the proceedings in the case as it returns to the lower courts.”


    The AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) is a nonprofit association dedicated to improving the health of people everywhere through medical education, health care, medical research, and community collaborations. Its members are all 159 U.S. medical schools accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education; 13 accredited Canadian medical schools; nearly 500 academic health systems and teaching hospitals, including Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers; and more than 70 academic societies. Through these institutions and organizations, the AAMC leads and serves America’s medical schools, academic health systems and teaching hospitals, and the millions of individuals across academic medicine, including more than 201,000 full-time faculty members, 97,000 medical students, 158,000 resident physicians, and 60,000 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in the biomedical sciences. Following a 2022 merger, the Alliance of Academic Health Centers International broadened participation in the AAMC by 70 international academic health centers throughout five regional offices across the globe. Learn more at aamc.org.