Justice Alito Presses Biden Admin on Federal Protection for Unborn Children

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito pressed the Biden administration over whether a federal law could be read to mandate abortion while also containing language protecting “unborn children.” His exchange came during the court’s April 24 oral argument in Moyle v. United States, in which Idaho is attempting to preserve its near-total abortion ban over objections from the federal government. U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar argued that the state law conflicted with the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), which mandates hospitals provide care that stabilizes “any individual” with an emergency medical condition. Passed in 1986, the law defines emergency medical condition as “a medical condition manifesting itself by acute symptoms of sufficient severity (including severe pain) such that the absence of immediate medical attention could reasonably be expected to result in … placing the health of the individual (or, with respect to a pregnant woman, the health of the woman or her unborn child) in serious jeopardy.”...