Congress created the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) to ensure that Medicare-funded hospitals would, at the very least, provide “necessary stabilizing treatment” for “any” patient with an “emergency medical condition,” regardless of the patient’s ability to pay. Emergency departments are required to stabilize pregnant patients in labor, pregnant patients who have emergency conditions unrelated to labor, and patients who need emergency treatment to prevent pregnancy loss.

Idaho raises the theory that it has the power to carve protections for pregnant people out of federal law. This would deepen the United State’s maternal health crisis, particularly for Black, Indigenous, immigrant, rural, and low-income communities.