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This piece first appeared in our weekly e-newsletter, The Fallout.
Welcome again to The Fallout, of us! We’re barely two weeks into 2024, and it’s already shaping as much as be one other historic yr for reproductive rights and entry. For the primary time ever, there are back-to-back instances on the Supreme Courtroom tackling some aspect of abortion care.
A while this spring, the justices will hear arguments in a case difficult the enlargement of remedy abortion entry. We’ve lined the mifepristone struggle extensively at Rewire Information Group, so I received’t get into the weeds once more (however verify right here and right here for nice background and a primer on what’s at stake).
Then in April, the Courtroom will take into account an Idaho case that pits state abortion bans and their medical exceptions (or lack thereof) in opposition to EMTALA, the federal Emergency Medical Remedy and Labor Act that mandates hospitals—even in states the place abortion is banned—should present emergency abortion care to stabilize sufferers when obligatory. My colleague Imani Gandy and I’ll talk about this case extensively on the return of the Growth! Lawyered podcast tomorrow, so ensure you’re subscribed in your favourite platform.
Individually, every case poses a dramatic risk to what little abortion entry stays in the US. Taken collectively, they’ve the potential to additional entrench the unavailability of care in giant swaths of this nation with abortion bans on the books, and dramatically roll again entry even in states which have prioritized defending abortion rights after Dobbs.
Sure, the stakes actually are that top. And I haven’t even talked about the election but.
As is commonly the case with the anti-choice assaults on bodily autonomy, each the mifepristone case and the EMTALA case are about greater than whether or not the FDA abused its authority in increasing remedy abortion entry or if states are ever required to offer emergency abortion care. They’re vital exams of simply how far the conservative justices are keen to go in rewriting the legislation and our democratic norms within the identify of limiting bodily autonomy.
Whereas arguments will probably be heard within the spring, we all know by now to not count on a choice till the summer season. Which means we may have a completely new abortion entry panorama simply in time for a presidential election the place the incumbent has finished little in the best way of restoring entry (and may’t even say the phrase “abortion”).
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