Biden DOJ’s Abortion Task Force Targets Idaho in First Post-Roe Lawsuit 

WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 16: U.S. President Joe Biden (L) and Attorney General Merrick Garland
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Idaho on Tuesday over the state’s abortion “trigger” law that goes into effect at the end of this month and would prohibit most abortions within the state.

Idaho, which passed its trigger law in 2020, was one of several states to pass such a law that would ban most abortions within the state if the U.S. Supreme Court sent the abortion issue back to the states by overturning Roe v. Wade. With the Court’s recent decision to overturn Roe, Idaho’s abortion ban would go into effect on August 25.

Under Idaho’s “trigger” law abortion ban, performing an abortion would become a felony. The law provides affirmative defenses for abortion providers in cases of incest, rape, and to save a pregnant woman’s life. However, the law excludes cases where a physician believes a pregnant woman will harm herself if the abortion procedure does not occur.

Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta argued Idaho’s law is preempted by the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). Under EMTALA, any hospital that received federal Medicare funds must provide “necessary stabilizing treatment to patients who arrive at their emergency departments while experiencing a medical emergency,” the DOJ’s complaint said.

The DOJ’s lawsuit against Idaho is the first since Biden announced the Reproductive Rights Task Force, led by Gupta, in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe.

“The complaint alleges that Idaho’s law is contrary to EMTALA because it presumptively criminalizes all abortions, making it a felony for doctors to provide emergency treatment required by federal law, even where a denial of care will likely result in the death of the pregnant patient,” Gupta said.

Gupta argued the law places medical professionals “in an impossible situation,” because “they must either withhold stabilizing treatment required by EMTALA or risk felony prosecution and license revocation.”

Under Idaho’s law, health care providers who perform unlawful abortions could face anywhere from two to five years in prison and have their medical license revoked.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said:

Today, the Justice Department’s message is clear — it does not matter what state a hospital subject to EMTALA operates in. If a patient comes into the emergency room with a medical emergency, jeopardizing the patient’s life or health, the hospital must provide the treatment necessary to stabilize that patient. This includes abortion, and that is the necessary treatment.

According to the DOJ’s complaint:

Idaho’s abortion law will therefore prevent doctors from performing abortions even when a doctor determines that abortion is the medically necessary treatment to prevent severe risk to the patient’s health and even in cases where denial of care will likely result in death for the pregnant patient. To the extent Idaho’s law prohibits doctors from providing medically necessary treatment, including abortions, that EMTALA requires as emergency medical care, Idaho’s new abortion law directly conflicts with EMTALA.

The DOJ is asking a federal court to issue a declaratory judgment that finds the law unconstitutional and prohibits Idaho from penalizing healthcare providers who perform abortions within the state. The agency also asks the court for an injunction prohibiting the enforcement of Idaho’s law “to the extent that it conflicts and prevents physicians from providing the emergency treatment that federal law requires.”

Idaho Governor Brad Little (R) called the DOJ’s lawsuit “another example of [President Joe] Biden overreaching” in a statement issued after the DOJ filed the complaint. Little said:

Our nation’s highest court returned the issue of abortion to the states to regulate – end of story. The U.S. Justice Department’s interference with Idaho’s pro-life law is another example of Biden overreaching yet again while he continues to ignore issues that really should demand his attention – like crushing inflation and the open border with Mexico.

Gov. Little also pledged to work with Idaho’s attorney general to defend the law in court.

“Here in Idaho, we are proud that we have led the country in protecting preborn lives,” Little said. “I will continue to work with Attorney General Lawrence Wasden to vigorously uphold state sovereignty and defend Idaho’s laws in the face of federal meddling.”

The case is United States v. Idaho, No. 1:22-cv-00329-BLW in the United States District Court for the District of Idaho.

Jordan Dixon-Hamilton is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jdixonhamilton@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter. 

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