Wed. Jan 15th, 2025

Supporters hold signs in support of their doctors and abortion access at a rally in Boise, Idaho

Supporters hold signs in support of their doctors and abortion access at a rally on April 21, 2024, at the Idaho Statehouse in Boise. (Otto Kitsinger for States Newsroom)

Idaho’s largest health system is suing Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador in federal court, seeking to extend court protections that have allowed for emergency abortions despite the state’s near total-abortion ban.

St. Luke’s Health System filed its lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of Idaho on Tuesday. 

The Biden administration, in a lawsuit filed in 2022, alleges Idaho’s abortion ban violated federal law requiring hospitals provide stabilizing medical care to patients experiencing emergencies. But the upcoming change in federal administration could, St. Luke’s said in a news release Tuesday, mean the federal government might seek to vacate an injunction allowing emergency abortions and dismiss its legal complaint.

St. Luke’s Chief Legal Officer, Christine Neufhoff, said in a statement that the health system — the largest provider of obstetrical and emergency care in Idaho — filed the new court action “to advocate for our patients and their families who are directly impacted by this conflict between state and federal law.”

In response to the Biden administration’s lawsuit, an Idaho federal judge in 2022 temporarily blocked Idaho’s abortion ban as it relates to the federal law requiring hospitals provide stabilizing care in emergencies, called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTALA. 

The U.S. Supreme Court lifted that injunction for several months, before the Supreme Court reinstated it in June. The Supreme Court handed the case down to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. When the federal protections for emergency abortions lapsed, air transports out of state for pregnancy complications at St. Luke’s increased from one, in all of 2023, to six in the first four months of 2024, States Newsroom reported. 

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In its lawsuit, St. Luke’s asked a federal judge to issue a declaratory judgement saying that Idaho’s law is partly preempted by the federal EMTALA law, and the health system seeks an order permanently enjoining Idaho’s law to the extent it conflicts with EMTALA. 

“Our physicians are dedicated to helping families bring children into the world with safe, evidence-based care,” Dr. Jim Souza, chief physician executive at St. Luke’s, said in a statement. “Yet, the conflict between Idaho’s Defense of Life Act and EMTALA makes it impossible to provide the highest standard of care in some of the most heartbreaking situations.”

Labrador, in a statement to the Idaho Capital Sun, said there is no conflict between “the plain interpretation of Idaho’s Defense of Life Act,” the state’s abortion ban law, and EMTALA.

“The U.S. Supreme Court has already ruled that the Constitution does not contain a right to abortion and that laws protecting the sanctity of life are left up to the individual states,” Labrador said in a statement. “There is no conflict between the plain interpretation of Idaho’s Defense of Life Act and EMTALA. Idaho law protects both the life of the mother and their unborn child. Any perceived conflict has been perpetuated by politicians, organizations, and individuals seeking to confuse doctors and jeopardize patient health for political ends.”

A Planned Parenthood affiliate leader covering Idaho called St. Luke’s lawsuit “an important step.”

“These legal filings underscore the urgent need to protect access to emergency medical care and ensure no Idahoan is denied health- or life-saving treatment,” Rebecca Gibron, CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaiʻi, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky, said in a statement. “We applaud St. Luke’s for their leadership in defending bodily autonomy and the right to make personal health care decisions free from political interference.

St. Luke’s, in its news release, said it will keep advocating to add a health exception to Idaho’s abortion bans. 

Idaho’s abortion ban laws appear set to remain unchanged by state lawmakers this year, as lawmakers await the results of lawsuits challenging the bans, Gov. Brad Little told reporters earlier this month.

President-elect Donald Trump is set to be inaugurated as the 47th U.S. President on Monday. Little told reporters this month that “some of that litigation will survive” the administration change, but could be handled differently by the U.S. Department of Justice. 

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