The U.S. Supreme Court unintentionally published a draft document on its website Wednesday indicating a forthcoming decision that could temporarily allow emergency abortions to continue in Idaho.
The decision pertains to cases Moyle v. United States and Idaho v. United States, although Supreme Court spokeswoman Patricia McCabe clarified to NBC News that the official decision has not yet been released.
“The Court’s Publications Unit inadvertently and briefly uploaded a document to the Court’s website. The Court’s opinion in Moyle v. United States and Idaho v. United States will be released in due course,” McCabe stated.
The leaked document, which includes a notice of being subject to formal revision, lacks the authoritative power of law until formally issued.
This incident marks the second leak of a Supreme Court abortion-related ruling in recent years, following the leak of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health in 2022.
Pending the official release, indications suggest a potential 6-3 majority in favor of allowing abortions in medical emergencies in Idaho.
The Biden Administration has advocated for this allowance under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), which mandates that Medicare-funded hospitals perform abortions when necessary to safeguard the health of pregnant individuals.
While the leaked draft appears poised to uphold emergency abortions in Idaho, it does not conclusively address federal law’s protection of abortion rights in such critical situations.
The document recounts legal maneuvers and the practical impact of injunctions and stays affecting access to abortion services in Idaho.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson expressed concerns in the leaked draft about delays in resolving the case, emphasizing the ongoing uncertainty faced by pregnant individuals requiring emergency medical care.
Legal experts and advocacy groups have highlighted the potential ramifications of the Supreme Court’s forthcoming decision, expressing both cautious optimism and continued concern about the future of abortion rights in Idaho and across the United States.
For now, Idaho’s law criminalizing abortion remains in effect, carrying penalties up to five years’ imprisonment for doctors performing the procedure.
Below is the leaked opinion:
During the year that the [District Court] injunction was in place, women in Idaho were able to obtain abortions in medical emergencies. Idaho meanwhile sought to get the injunction lifted. When the en banc Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit declined to stay the injunction, Idaho filed an emergency application here. This Court stayed the injunction and granted the State’s petition for certiorari before judgment. With that stay in effect, Idaho could enforce its abortion ban even when terminating a pregnancy was necessary to prevent grave harm to the woman.
The on-the-ground impact was immediate.
To ensure appropriate medical care, the State’s largest provider of emergency services had to airlift pregnant women out of Idaho roughly every other week, compared to once in all of the prior year (when the injunction was in effect).
