High court seems split on Idaho abortion ban

WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court appeared divided Wednesday on whether Idaho’s near-total ban on abortion conflicts with a federal law requiring hospitals to stabilise patients needing emergency care, in a case that carries potentially sweeping national consequences.

The hearing comes nearly two years after the conservative-majority bench overturned the national right to terminate a pregnancy, making reproductive rights a pivotal issue that could affect the outcome of the November presidential election.

Emotions ran deep outside the court, where hundreds of pro-abortion activists shouted, “Abortion is health care!” Anti-abortion activists also arrived in large numbers and chanted slogans.

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.

President Joe Biden’s administration then sued the northwestern state, arguing its Defense of Life Act violated a federal law that requires hospitals that receive government Medicare funding to provide emergency room care, including abortion, in situations that are serious but not necessarily life-threatening.

A federal judge in Boise, Idaho’s capital, issued a preliminary injunction in August 2022, blocking the state law on the grounds it put doctors in a difficult position. But in January the Supreme Court reinstated the Idaho ban while it took up the matter.

Most Americans favour some abortion protections, and electoral backlash to strict bans has left Republicans in a bind.

Underscoring the dilemma facing the party, legislators in Arizona voted Wednesday to repeal an 1864 law that would almost completely outlaw abortion in the battleground state after some Republicans broke ranks to side with Democrats.