The Supreme Court looks likely to allow emergency abortions in Idaho when a pregnant person’s health is seriously threatened, based on a draft of the opinion briefly posted on the court’s website Wednesday and obtained by Bloomberg News.
The document indicates that the court may decide it acted too swiftly in getting involved in the case about Idaho’s strict abortion ban. By a 6-3 vote, it would reinstate a lower court order that permitted hospitals in Idaho to perform emergency abortions to safeguard the health of pregnant patients.
This outcome would mean the central issues of the case remain unresolved. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson noted in a separate opinion that today’s decision doesn’t benefit pregnant patients in Idaho but only delays the matter.
The Supreme Court acknowledged that a document was mistakenly posted Wednesday and emphasized that an official opinion on the Idaho case will be released in due time, according to court spokeswoman Patricia McCabe.
Anti abortion protestors outside the Supreme Court (Via Jonathon Bell/Getty Images)
Conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch dissented from the decision.
It’s important to note that this finding is not the final ruling of the court since the official decision has not been released. The case will likely continue at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court and could return to the Supreme Court.
Given that it is an election year, legal expert Greer Donley from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law suggests the Supreme Court may prefer to address procedural aspects rather than making a definitive abortion-related decision.
A recent poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research revealed that nearly 7 in 10 U.S. adults support protecting access to abortions for patients experiencing miscarriages or other pregnancy-related emergencies.
