Raoul Files Legal Briefs to Oppose Efforts in Idaho, Texas to Limit Abortion Access
Chicago — Attorney General Kwame Raoul, as part of two separate coalitions of attorneys general,
continued his advocacy for access to reproductive autonomy by filing two legal briefs: one opposing efforts
in Idaho to impose a near total ban on abortion, and one opposing attempts in Texas to exempt abortion
care from emergency health care.
“Across the country, we are seeing increased efforts to restrict access to or criminalize abortion. These
attempts will not end abortion, but instead will end access to safe abortion care for millions of women,”
Raoul said. “I will continue to stand up for the rights of women to access reproductive health care not only
here in Illinois but across the country.”
Raoul joined a coalition of 21 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief supporting the federal government’s defense of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) against efforts by Texas’ government to broadly exempt abortion care from emergency health care. Following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued guidance reiterating that the EMTALA requires hospitals to provide stabilizing emergency treatment, including abortion. Texas filed a lawsuit challenging the EMTALA’s longstanding interpretation and seeking to remove abortion care from emergency health care under the law.
In their brief filed in Texas v. Becerra Raoul and the coalition argue that Texas’ challenge conflicts with the plain text of the EMTALA as well as decades of precedent and jeopardizes the lives and health of individuals with pregnancy-related emergency medical conditions. The coalition argues that preventing hospitals from performing abortions needed to address an emergency medical condition, as determined by a treating physician, threatens the health and lives of pregnant patients. Many pregnancy and miscarriage
complications are emergency medical conditions requiring time-sensitive stabilizing treatment that can
include abortion. In an emergency, any failure to provide or delay in providing necessary abortion care puts
the pregnant patient’s life or health at risk.
Joining Raoul in filing the brief are the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Washington.
Raoul also joined a separate coalition of 21 attorneys general in support of the federal government’s motion
for a preliminary injunction to stop enforcement of Idaho’s near-total ban on abortion. In 2020, Idaho
enacted a law criminalizing all abortions and imposing prison time on anyone who performs, assists or
attempts to perform an abortion – even in the context of emergency care. With the overturning of Roe v.
Wade, Idaho’s law was triggered to automatically take effect on Aug. 25. The U.S. Department of Justice
filed a lawsuit challenging Idaho’s ban on Aug. 2, arguing that it conflicts with protections afforded by the
EMTALA.
Raoul and the coalition argue in their brief, filed in United States of America v. Idaho, that Idaho’s abortion ban conflicts with the EMTALA, puts at risk the lives and health of individuals with pregnancy-related emergency medical conditions and places additional strain on the public health systems of states that protect abortion.
In the brief, Raoul and the coalition argue that Idaho’s abortion ban violates the EMTALA by banning
medically-necessary emergency abortion care. Every hospital in the nation that operates an emergency
department and participates in Medicare is subject to the EMTALA. Under the law, emergency rooms are
required to provide all patients who have an emergency medical condition with the treatment required to
stabilize the medical condition.
Many patients seek emergency medical care due to pregnancy-related medical emergencies that may
require abortion care, including ectopic pregnancy, hemorrhage, amniotic fluid embolism, pre-labor rupture
of membranes, intrauterine fetal death and hypertension. In both briefs, Raoul and the attorneys general
highlight several pregnant patients in Illinois who required emergency abortion care to stabilize their
conditions. The coalition also highlights the 2018 death of a pregnant Illinois patient who did not receive
necessary care and died of an ectopic pregnancy, illustrating the dangers to pregnant patients when
hospitals fail to meet their EMTALA obligation to provide stabilizing care for emergency medical conditions.
Under Idaho’s law, health care providers would face criminal prosecution or lose their license for providing
this medically necessary care.
Joining Raoul in filing the brief are the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Washington.
