Family Council Joins Pro-Life Amicus Brief Before U.S. Supreme Court

On Monday Family Council joined more than 30 other individuals and organizations in an amicus brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Moyle v. United States.

The amicus brief is part of a lawsuit over the Biden Administration’s effort to turn emergency rooms into abortion facilities via the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA).

EMTALA is a decades old law signed by President Ronald Reagan. It is designed to ensure people are able to receive emergency care even if they are unable to pay.

After the U.S. Supreme Court released its Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision overturning Roe v. Wade, President Biden issued an executive order urging the Secretary of Health and Human Services to identify ways to use federal authority to expand abortion.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued a letter and guidance instructing doctors and hospitals that EMTALA requires them to perform abortions as a “stabilizing treatment” or transfer the woman to another facility for an abortion if they determine that doing so is necessary to protect the life or health of the mother — even if the abortion would be illegal under state law.

Health exceptions in abortion laws are notoriously vague and can actually permit abortion on demand in many cases. That’s why states like Arkansas limit abortion to situations where the mother’s life is at risk instead of using a broader “health” exception.

However, the Biden Administration’s letter to doctors and hospitals last year specifically says, “And when a state law prohibits abortion and does not include an exception for the life and health of the pregnant person — or draws the exception more narrowly than EMTALA’s emergency medical condition definition — that state law is preempted [overridden by the federal government].”

In Moyle v. United States of America, the Biden Administration is attempting to use this new interpretation of EMTALA to force E.R. doctors in other states to perform abortions that might be illegal under state pro-life laws. The amicus brief we joined in the case argues that the federal government is unlawfully intruding into state law.

The Biden Administration simply has no business trying to overrule state pro-life laws or turn emergency rooms into abortion facilities. If the Biden Administration wins in this case, it could try to push the same abortion agenda in other states—including Arkansas.

Family Council is pleased to join with other pro-life groups in standing for life and pushing back against abortion in our country.

You Can Read the Amicus Brief Here.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.