Trump administration is set to drop lawsuit pushing Idaho to allow
emergency abortions, filing shows
[March 05, 2025]
By LINDSAY WHITEHURST and REBECCA BOONE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration signaled Tuesday it will move
to let Idaho enforce its strict abortion ban, even in the treatment of
pregnant women suffering medical emergencies, a dramatic reversal from
the previous administration in a closely watched lawsuit.
The state’s largest hospital system said it could be forced to airlift
women out of state for care if the federal lawsuit is dismissed. That
convinced a judge to quickly grant a temporary order allowing doctors to
keep providing abortions they deem necessary to treat emergencies.
The move to dismiss the lawsuit originally filed by the Biden
administration could come as soon as Wednesday, St. Luke’s Health System
wrote in a court filing, citing communication with the Justice
Department.
Dropping the case would be among the new administration's first major
moves on abortion. In his first term, Republican President Donald Trump
appointed many of the Supreme Court justices who voted to overturned the
nationwide right to abortion in 2022. He has since said the issue should
be left to the states.
Complaints that pregnant women were turned away from U.S. emergency
rooms spiked after the overturning of Roe v. Wade amid questions about
what care hospitals could legally provide, federal records showed.
A Justice Department spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to requests
for comment.
In its original lawsuit against Idaho, the Biden administration argued
that federal law required doctors to perform abortions in emergency
situations if a patient’s health or life were at serious risk — even if
ending the pregnancy could run afoul of the state's abortion ban, one of
the country's most restrictive.
Idaho has pushed back, saying that its state law allows for abortions in
life-threatening situations and that the Democratic administration was
trying to improperly expand its exceptions.
The Supreme Court stepped into the Idaho case last year and ultimately
handed down a narrow ruling that allowed hospitals to keep making
determinations about emergency pregnancy terminations.
The high court did not, however, resolve key legal questions in the
case, and it was argued before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in
December. The appeals court has not yet ruled.
Idaho Deputy Attorney General Brian Church had urged the court to reject
St. Luke’s request for a restraining order, saying the hospital system
was trying to reinterpret federal law and wrest control from the state
legislature now that, “the United States is abandoning its erroneous
interpretation” that federal law requires emergency abortions.
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People march through 8th Street in downtown Boise, Idaho, on
May 3, 2022, in response to the news that the U.S. Supreme Court
could be poised to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade case that
legalized abortion nationwide. (Sarah A. Miller/Idaho Statesman via
AP, File)
 “It is now seeking to usurp the role
of the Idaho Legislature in setting statewide medical standards of
care,” Church wrote. He said any changes to state policy should come
from the ballot box, not the courts.
About 50,000 people in the U.S. develop
life-threatening pregnancy complications each year, including major
blood loss, sepsis or the loss of reproductive organs. In rare
cases, doctors might need to terminate a pregnancy to protect the
health of the pregnant person, especially in cases where there is no
chance for a fetus to survive.
When Idaho was able to fully enforce its ban during medical
emergencies, some Idaho doctors reported that pregnant women were
facing delays in care and in some cases being flown to out-of-state
hospitals for treatment they would have previously been able to get
at home.
“My colleagues and I lived in constant fear that patients would
present in an emergency room who were not stable enough to transfer,
yet the medically indicated stabilizing care-termination-could not
be provided because it was not yet needed to prevent the patient’s
death,” one doctor said in court documents.
While the law does allow for life-saving abortions, it's still
impossible to tell exactly when a dire case crosses the line to
potentially fatal in the eyes of the law, she wrote.
In another abortion-related case this week, the Trump administration
received additional time to make a filing — which would also give it
time to change the government's position on the issue. In that case,
the states of Idaho, Kansas and Missouri are seeking to restrict the
abortion pill mifepristone. Under Biden, the government was
defending access.
Most Republican-controlled states have started enforcing new bans or
restrictions since 2022. Currently, 12 states are enforcing bans on
abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with limited exceptions, and
four have bans that kick in at or about six weeks into pregnancy —
often before women realize they’re pregnant.
___
Boone reported from Seattle. Associated Press writer Alanna Durkin
Richer contributed to this report.
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