Conservative super lawyer James Bopp, Jr. has announced that the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) filed a friend of the court brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down the Biden administration’s mandate that federal law creates a right to abortion on
demand throughout all fifty states in hospital emergency rooms. The brief supports Idaho’s pro-life law, Defense of Life Act.
"Biden’s abortion mandate has no basis in law. The federal law regulating emergency rooms was done to protect patients, not to create a right to abortion on demand," said James Bopp, Jr., general counsel for NRLC and lead counsel on NRLC’s brief. "Biden’s abortion mandate guts the ability for states like Idaho to protect unborn life by mandating abortion on demand in emergency rooms. The High Court needs to reject Biden’s abortion mandate."
The Biden administration is trying to force all hospital emergency rooms to provide abortion on demand. Biden has used a federal emergency care law, which was meant to prevent patient dumping without stabilization, to mandate that hospitals must provide elective abortion services. The Ninth Circuit agreed that the Biden administration could compel all hospitals to perform abortions in their emergency rooms.
The Amicus brief argues in part that:
The legislative history of EMTALA [The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act] underscores its narrow focus on safeguarding indigent patients, explicitly deferring to state medical practice laws, and resisting congressional efforts to broaden its scope beyond preventing patient dumping. EMTALA is under the purview of HHS. Specifically, HHS delegates regulatory and enforcement authority over EMTALA between two federal bodies: the CMS and the Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (OIG). By expanding EMTALA's limited purpose through regulatory and enforcement actions beyond what Congress intended, these agencies have effectively usurped the legislature's constitutional authority to write this nation's laws.
Idaho sued because Biden’s mandate overrides their state’s Defense of Life Act by forcing hospitals to provide abortion on demand, contrary to that state’s law. The Supreme Court has agreed to take up the case and decide whether Biden’s abortion mandate is constitutional. This case will determine if states can enact protective laws without clashes with the federal emergency care law.
"The Biden Administration is using EMTALA as a cudgel to force pro-life states into providing abortions," said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life. "This is just another example of how this administration is doing everything in its power to appease pro-abortion groups by promoting unlimited abortions."
NRLC’s brief argues that Biden’s abortion mandate under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) is contrary to that federal law which was only meant to protect emergency room patients from being dumped and does not mandate that the hospital provide medical care that is contrary to state law.
The U.S. Supreme Court docket for Moyle and Idaho (Nos. 23-726 and 23-727) is available here, and the NRLC brief is available on the docket here.
James Bopp, Jr.
National Right to Life Committee (NRLC)
Supreme Court
Joe Biden administration
abortion policy
Emergency Rooms policy
abortion on demand in emergency rooms
Pro life movement
Idaho Defense of Life Act
hospitals elective abortion services
EMTALA [The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act]
HHS
Carol Tobias