Justices Sotomayor and Barrett press Idaho counsel on when emergency abortions are allowed under state law.

Liberal U.S. Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor and conservative justice Amy Coney Barrett on Wednesday both pressed Idaho’s legal counsel over how much latitude state law gives doctors to perform emergency abortions.

The high court was hearing oral arguments over whether a federal law, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), requires emergency rooms to provide abortions to pregnant women in an emergency, amid Idaho’s near-total abortion ban. The state currently bans all abortions, with exceptions only for reported cases of rape or incest, or when it is “necessary to prevent the death of the pregnant woman.”

“Imagine a patient who goes to the ER with pre-prom,” Sotomayor suggested, referring to Premature Rupture of Membranes (PROM)/Preterm Premature Rupture of Membranes (PPROM). “This particular patient, they tried — had to deliver her baby, the baby died, she had a hysterectomy, and she can no longer have children. All right, you're telling me the doctor there couldn't have done the abortion earlier?”

“It goes back to whether a doctor can, in good faith, medical judgment —” said Idaho legal counsel Josh Turner.

“That's a lot for the doctor to risk,” Sotomayor said.

“When Idaho law changed to make the issue whether she's going to die or not, or whether she's going to have a serious medical condition, there's a big daylight by your standards, correct?” Sotomayor continued.

Turner: “It is very case by case.”

Sotomayor: “That’s the problem.”

Barrett: “I’m kind of shocked, actually, because I thought your own expert had said below that these kinds of cases were covered, and you're now saying they're not?”

Turner: “No, I'm not saying that. That's just my point, Your Honor, is that —”

Barrett: “Well, you're hedging.”

The conservative justices on the court overall, however, seemed skeptical that federal law can override strict state abortion bans, even during some medical emergencies.

The arguments marked the first time since SCOTUS overturned Roe v. Wade, ruling that the U.S. Constitution doesn’t guarantee the right to an abortion, that the high court was considering the breadth of a state abortion ban.