The Supreme Court officially ruled in favor of permitting emergency abortions in Idaho to protect maternal health June 27, after a document leaked momentarily the day prior giving a public preview of the decision.
In the decision, the justices wrote that "Idaho's arguments about EMTALA do not justify, and have never justified, either emergency relief or our early consideration of this dispute."
The ruling was initially published on the Supreme Court's website before being taken down, and first reported by Bloomberg.
In the case, the state had argued its ban was constitutional on the grounds that it still allowed abortions that a treating physician determined necessary to prevent a patient's death, but the Justice Department found it too narrow and in violation of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act.
The district court's preliminary injunction against Idaho enforcing its abortion ban stands and the state will allow hospitals and medical physicians to perform an abortion on a patient when termination is necessary to "prevent serious harms to a woman's health," the document states.
"Today’s decision, for now, safeguards the health of pregnant patients and respects the sanctity of the physician-patient relationship and medical judgment of providers," Bruce Siegel, MD, president and CEO of America’s Essential Hospitals, said in a statement shared with Becker's.