Trump Administration Drops Biden-Era Abortion Lawsuit Against Idaho

The Trump Administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) has formally dismissed a lawsuit against the state of Idaho that had been brought by the Biden Administration in opposition to the state’s pro-life law.As ABC News reports, the lawsuit had claimed that Idaho’s law – which enacts a near-total ban on abortion – was in violation of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA). The federal law requires all hospitals funded by Medicare to provide “stabilizing care” to any patient whose health is threatened. Although the Idaho law allows exemptions for cases of rape, incest, or whenever “necessary to prevent the death of the pregnant woman,” the Biden-era lawsuit argued that EMTALA overrides the state law since it requires abortions for any cases of serious health risk, not just the risk of death.

When the case reached the Supreme Court, the high court ultimately dismissed it and sent it back to a lower court, thus allowing certain abortions to continue in Idaho while the case remained ongoing. The Trump Administration’s decision to drop the lawsuit effectively ends the challenge, thus allowing the state law to take precedence once again.Pro-abortion groups issued statements criticizing the move, claiming with no evidence that the DOJ’s decision would endanger the lives of pregnant women.

“We know what happens when a state prevents people from getting emergency care: pregnant people suffer potentially deadly consequences,” said a statement from Planned Parenthood’s president Alexis Johnson. “Idahoans have already gone through enough trauma, including women being airlifted out of state to get care that should be available in any emergency room. The Trump administration is willing to practically guarantee that more families will suffer at the hands of the state.”

President Trump has repeatedly affirmed his support for the pro-life cause, and has been described as the most pro-life president in American history. Having appointed three Supreme Court Justices in his first term – Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett – he was widely credited with setting the stage for the eventual overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, with the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The ruling ultimately determined that there is no national “right” to have an abortion, and instead decided that abortion should be decided by the individual states. Since then, President Trump has made clear that while he is personally pro-life, he prefers to leave the issue of abortion up to the states as per the Supreme Court’s ruling.