On Friday, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) filed a friend of the court brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, supporting Idaho’s efforts to uphold its Defense of Life Act. Idaho’s protective pro-life law ensures that women and their unborn children are not placed at risk by abortion. The Defense of Life Act includes exceptions for cases where the mother’s life is at risk or in instances of sexual assault.

The Biden administration is attempting to misuse the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) to advance a pro-abortion agenda. This federal law, originally created to safeguard access to emergency care, is now being used as a tool to force hospitals nationwide to perform abortions.

“This federal overreach not only undermines state sovereignty but also dismisses the will of the people in these states,” said James Bopp, Jr., general counsel for NRLC and lead counsel on NRLC’s brief. “It’s a troubling example of how Washington bureaucrats are willing to ignore local voters to push a one-size-fits-all abortion agenda. The citizens in pro-life states have made their choice at the ballot box, and it’s not the federal government’s place to nullify those decisions.”

In August 2022, the Biden administration filed a lawsuit against Idaho. The case reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which, in June, decided not to make a final ruling. Instead, the Court remanded the case back to the Ninth Circuit for further examination. The Ninth Circuit is now scheduled to hear arguments on this pivotal case in December.

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“The Biden-Harris administration has made pushing unlimited abortion on the American people a top priority,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life. “Efforts to twist the compassionate EMTALA law is another way forward in their radical agenda of unlimited abortion.”

NRLC’s brief argues that EMTALA was designed to establish a baseline for emergency treatment and prevent patient dumping, not to create a national medical standard of care. The brief emphasizes that EMTALA does not require hospitals to provide medical care contrary to state law, especially in ethically complex areas like abortion.

NRLC’s amicus brief in the Ninth Circuit is available here.