Conservative SCOTUS Almost Entirely Ignores Pregnant Patients In Emergency Abortion Arguments [Video]

The Supreme Court heard heated arguments on Wednesday over whether states can criminalize life-saving, stabilizing abortion care in emergency medical situations.

The arguments, a consolidation of Idaho v. United States and Moyle v. United States, focused on Idaho’s near-total abortion ban, which first went into effect in August 2022. The justices debated whether the narrow exceptions in Idaho’s ban override federally mandated requirements for physicians under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act. EMTALA requires hospitals that participate in Medicare — the majority of hospitals in the country — to offer abortion care if it’s necessary to stabilize the health of a pregnant patient while they’re experiencing a medical emergency.

The arguments highlighted the debate happening across the country since the Dobbs decision repealed Roe v. Wade: Are post-Dobbs abortion bans operating smoothly, or have they turned reproductive health upside down, forcing physicians and patients into impossible, often deadly, situations?

The Supreme Court …