Justice Samuel Alito revived the legal debate about fetal personhood this week during oral arguments for the Idaho abortion case currently before the Supreme Court.
The Idaho case deals with whether Idaho emergency room doctors are required by federal law to perform abortions to stabilize pregnant women in medical crises. Idaho bans all abortions except to save the life of the mother or in cases of rape and incest.
The case is the first time the high court has considered whether a state abortion ban is constitutional since the demise of Roe v. Wade.
In the Idaho case, the Biden administration is arguing that Idaho’s abortion ban flies in the face of a federal law, the Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act, known as EMTALA, which requires hospitals receiving federal funds to provide patients with stabilizing care. Hospitals that flout the law are at risk of losing their Medicare…
