The United States Supreme Court decided in the last moments to put back in force a almost total ban on abortion in the state of Idahoin the northwest of the country, while attending to an appeal against that Law presented by the Government of the president Joe Biden.
The highest court, with a majority of conservative judges, revoked the Roe vs. ruling in June 2022. Wade of 1973, which for almost half a century guaranteed women’s right to abortion in the country, leaving in the hands of each state the power to authorize it or not.
Within this framework, Idaho, governed by the Republican Party, approved one of the strictest anti-abortion laws in the country. It is only admitted if the pregnant woman is at imminent risk of death.
The US government sued that state, arguing that its regulations conflict with a federal law that requires hospitals that receive public funding to provide emergency medical care, including the voluntary termination of pregnancy, in serious but not necessarily fatal situations.
“Nothing protects a doctor from being arrested or criminally prosecuted under Idaho law, and a doctor who performs an abortion in Idaho can only avoid criminal liability by establishing that ‘the abortion was necessary to prevent the death of the pregnant woman.’ ‘” the Justice Department said.
“Beyond the care necessary to avoid death, the law does not offer any defense when the health of the pregnant patient is at stake,” he added.
The appeal allowed the validity of the state regulations to be stopped in August 2022, but now the Supreme Court has restored it while studying the underlying issue and scheduled oral arguments for April to analyze the case.
Recently, a woman from Texas, another state dominated by conservatives, had to leave the territory to undergo an emergency abortion after being prevented from terminating a potentially fatal pregnancy, the AFP news agency reported.
Texas doctors convicted of performing abortions face up to 99 years in prison, fines of up to $100,000, and revocation of their medical license.
Under Idaho’s “Defense of Life Act,” anyone who performs an abortion can be sentenced to five years in prison.
Biden reacted with criticism to the decision of the highest court in the country: “The vice president (Kamala Harris) and I believe that decisions about health care should be made by women and their doctors, not by politicians.”
The president regretted that the annulment of the historic Roe vs. Wade “has allowed Republican elected officials to implement dangerous abortion bans that continue to endanger women’s health, forcing them to travel out of state to receive medical care, and making it difficult for doctors to provide care, even in an emergency.”
Biden noted that these bans also affect doctors by interfering with their ability to care for their patients, sometimes leading them to leave Idaho and other states where abortion bans are in effect.
“This should never happen in the United States,” said the Democrat, according to a White House statement cited by the Europa Press news agency.
The president assured that his Executive will continue to “defend women’s ability to access emergency care under federal law.”
In addition, he called on Congress to “immediately” restore the protections granted by the Roe v. ruling through a law. Wade “so that women in every state can access the health care they need.”
Source: Ambito
