Supreme Court rules emergency abortions in Idaho can continue

The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld its previously posted opinion that Idaho can continue performing emergency abortions if the life of the mother is at risk.

The court reinstated a lower court's ruling in its 6-3 opinion and concluded that it should not have gotten involved in the case so quickly. Hospitals in the state are now allowed to perform emergency abortions to protect a pregnant patient’s health.

Doctors in the case had argued that the previous state law did not clearly state what constitutes an emergency, which has forced them to airlift pregnant patients to other states where the rules were more relaxed, according to the Associated Press.

But Idaho had pushed back that its state law does already allow abortions to save the life of the mother.

The ruling comes after the high court accidentally posted the opinion prematurely Wednesday, then quickly removed it. However, Bloomberg News was able to access and read the opinion before it was taken down.

Supreme Court Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas, Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, Samuel Alito, and Chief Justice John Roberts all approved the ruling, while liberal justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.