WASHINGTON, D.C.— On Wednesday, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) filed a friend of the court brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down the Biden administration’s mandate that federal law creates a right to abortion on demand throughout all fifty states in hospital emergency rooms. The brief supports Idaho’s pro-life law, Defense of Life Act.

“Biden’s abortion mandate has no basis in law. The federal law regulating emergency rooms was done to protect patients, not to create a right to abortion on demand,” said James Bopp, Jr., general counsel for NRLC and lead counsel on NRLC’s brief. “Biden’s abortion mandate guts the ability for states like Idaho to protect unborn life by mandating abortion on demand in emergency rooms. The High Court needs to reject Biden’s abortion mandate.” 

The Biden administration is trying to force all hospital emergency rooms to provide abortion on demand. Biden has used a federal emergency care law, which was meant to prevent patient dumping without stabilization, to mandate that hospitals must provide elective abortion services. The Ninth Circuit agreed that the Biden administration could compel all hospitals to perform abortions in their emergency rooms.

Idaho sued because Biden’s mandate overrides their state’s Defense of Life Act by forcing hospitals to provide abortion on demand, contrary to that state’s law. The Supreme Court has agreed to take up the case and decide whether Biden’s abortion mandate is constitutional. This case will determine if states can enact protective laws without clashes with the federal emergency care law.

“The Biden Administration is using EMTALA as a cudgel to force pro-life states into providing abortions,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life. “This is just another example of how this administration is doing everything in its power to appease pro-abortion groups by promoting unlimited abortions.”

NRLC’s brief argues that Biden’s abortion mandate under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) is contrary to that federal law which was only meant to protect emergency room patients from being dumped and does not mandate that the hospital provide medical care that is contrary to state law.

The U.S. Supreme Court docket for Moyle and Idaho (Nos. 23-726 and 23-727) is available here, and the NRLC brief is available on the docket here.

Founded in 1968, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of affiliates in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia and more than 3,000 local chapters, is the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots pro-life organization. Recognized as the flagship of the pro-life movement, the National Right to Life works through legislation and education to protect innocent human life from abortion, infanticide, assisted suicide and euthanasia.