Justices consider abortion issue again with Emtala case, two years after the conservative majority overturned Roe v Wade
Good morning, US politics blog readers. The issue of abortion will once again be before the supreme court this morning, and the conservative justices who two years ago upended the country’s politics by voting to overturn Roe v Wade and allow states to ban abortions. In response to that decision, Joe Biden said that even states where the procedure is banned must still allow hospitals that receive federal funds to perform the procedure in an emergency, citing a 1986 law called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, or Emtala. Today’s legal tussle involves the deeply conservative state of Idaho, where abortion is prohibited unless a patient’s life is at risk in an emergency. The Biden administration sued the state, arguing that its law clashed with Emtala, and the justices now have to sort out the dispute.
The supreme court is dominated by a supermajority of six conservative justices against three liberals, but since dismantling Roe, they haven’t necessarily shown the same zeal for other efforts to further restrict abortion. About a month ago, the justices appeared skeptical of attempts by anti-abortion doctors to roll back the availability of mifepristone, a drug used nationwide in medication abortions. Today’s hearing begins at 10am ET, and we’ll be listening to the arguments for a sense of how they are leaning on this issue.
Biden is expected to sign a bill approved by the Senate last night that authorizes $95b in aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, capping months of congressional wrangling over the contentious issue.
Republican speaker of the House Mike Johnson is heading to Columbia University, which has been rocked by pro-Palestinian protests in recent days and police arrests of demonstrators. He will hold a press conference at 3:45pm this afternoon, and you can follow our live blog for more.
Summer Lee, a progressive Democratic congresswoman who faced a primary challenge over her support for a ceasefire in Gaza, easily won the party’s nomination again to represent her Pennsylvania district.
