Doctor: Federal care law essential

Rachel Sun Of The Daily News And Northwest Public Broadcasting, Moscow-Pullman Daily News, Moscow, Idaho
·2 min read

Apr. 17—On April 24, the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments for a case that will decide if a federal law mandating emergency care preempts state abortion bans.

The National Women's Law Center on Tuesday held a news briefing ahead of those arguments, which included doctors, legal experts and an affected patient.

Dr. Caitlin Gustafson is a family physician who provides care in rural Idaho.

Gustafson said the federal law in question, known as the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTALA, is essential for doctors like her to safely practice medicine.

"I've had many colleagues who have left the state," she said. "They understand that there is no practice of OB-GYN in which abortion as a health-saving, life-saving measure can be taken out."

A report published this year by the Idaho Physician Well-Being Action Collaborative and Idaho Coalition for Safe Health Care showed that Idaho has lost 22% of its OB-GYNs since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022.

While Idaho's abortion ban provides an exception to save the life of the mother, many Idaho doctors, as well as physicians in states with similar bans, have said the language of those laws encourages them to delay care longer than is safe.

"Physicians face an ever-present danger that state officials will second-guess their medical judgment and claim that a patient wasn't quite close enough to death," said Molly Duan, senior staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive rights. "EMTALA is a real protection. It says not only that hospitals can stabilize patients who need abortions, but that they must."

Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador has maintained that the state's abortion ban is not preempted, nor does it conflict with EMTALA.

But Gustafsin said pregnancy complications that put the health, fertility and life of a pregnant patient at risk are a regular part of obstetrics care. Abortion is a medically necessary standard of care for some of those pregnancy complications, she said.

"This care is integral to the practice of OB-GYN," she said. "Pregnancy complications are far too common."

Sun may be contacted at rsun@lmtribune.com or on Twitter at @Rachel_M_Sun. This report is made in partnership with Northwest Public Broadcasting, the Lewiston Tribune and the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.