Washington - The US Supreme Court on Thursday cleared the way for women experiencing medical emergencies to obtain abortions in Idaho, but the ruling’s narrow scope meant it was a muted victory for reproductive rights activists. The decision comes two years after the conservative-majority bench dismantled the nationwide right to terminate a pregnancy, making it a pivotal issue in November’s presidential election. “The stakes could not be higher and the contrast could not be clearer,” said President Joe Biden, who is neck and neck with Donald Trump in the tight race for the White House. “My Administration is committed to defending reproductive freedom and maintains our long-standing position that women have the right to access the emergency medical care they need.”
In a brief, unsigned order, the court reinstated a lower court’s injunction that ensured hospitals could terminate pregnancies to protect a mother’s health, dismissing appeals by the western state’s leaders.
But the new ruling, which was mistakenly uploaded on Wednesday and first reported by Bloomberg, does not tackle the substance of the case -- namely, whether Idaho’s near-total ban on abortion conflicts with a federal law requiring hospitals to stabilize patients needing emergency care.
Rather, the Supreme Court said that the appeals were dismissed because they were “improvidently granted,” meaning they should not have taken up the case in the first place, and it can now run its course in lower courts.
A decision on the merits could have had potentially sweeping national consequences.
Three conservative judges -- Chief Justice John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett -- joined with the liberal wing in dropping the case.
Conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented.
After the fall of Roe v. Wade in June 2022, Idaho enacted one of the most stringent anti-abortion laws in the United States.
It allows the procedure only in cases of rape, incest and “when necessary to prevent the death of the pregnant woman,” and provides for penalties of up to five years in jail for a doctor who carries out an abortion.
