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The US Supreme Court appears poised to allow doctors in Idaho to perform abortions in medical emergencies, despite the state’s strict restrictions on the procedure, according to a draft copy of a not-yet-released opinion from the court, viewed and obtained by Bloomberg.
The opinion reportedly briefly appeared on the court’s website as two other opinions were released on Wednesday. It is not the official document, and it’s not necessarily the final ruling of the court.
According to the document, the ruling as it reads now wouldn’t resolve the broader issue at the heart of the case; rather, it would reinstate a lower court order allowing hospitals in Idaho to perform emergency abortions, rejecting appeals by state Republican leaders.
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This case marked the first time the court has considered the furthest implications of a state ban on abortion since overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022. Reports of pregnant women being turned away from emergency rooms and left to give birth or miscarry on their own have spiked since, and several women have been airlifted out of Idaho to receive emergency care elsewhere.
Such a ruling would mark a small post-Roe win for US President Joe Biden’s administration and the reproductive rights movement as a whole, but may leave the door open for other challenges limiting reproductive healthcare.