Sam Alito Thinks We're All Stupid [View all]
Sam Alito Thinks Were All Stupid
During Wednesdays Supreme Court arguments over life-saving abortions in emergency rooms, a few things became clear: The male justices are unconcerned by womens suffering, and Justice Samuel Alito thinks there arent enough abortion restrictions across the U.S.but if you press him on that point, youre the ridiculous one.
The case,
United States v. Idaho, is about whether emergency rooms in Idahoa state that bans all abortions except those done to prevent death, not to preserve healthare in violation of a federal law that requires E.R. patients to be stabilized. The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTALA, says hospitals that accept Medicare funding have to stabilize patients facing threats to their health, and for pregnant patients facing complications, the treatment is sometimes abortion.
But this is not a normal case: Idaho is represented in part by Alliance Defending Freedom, or ADF, a far-right legal activist group that is pushing for nationwide restrictions, including a national abortion ban. Idaho and ADF argued in case briefs and before the court that a fetus is a separate patient under EMTALA and deserves equal treatment in E.R.s. This is a fetal personhood argument, and if its taken to its logical endpoint, it would lead to a ban on all abortions nationwide, the end of IVF as we know it (see: Alabama), and restrictions on certain forms of birth control. In practice, women whose water breaks too early could be forced on bed rest to try to save the fetus, or given C-sections against their will. The latter is already happening, and in fact, happened even before Dobbs.
During arguments, some of the male justices seemed content to talk about whether EMTALAs funding conditions are an appropriate use of the Constitutions spending clause, while the women were focusing on the medical harm Idahos law has caused to living, breathing women. Late in the argument, Alitowho wrote the majority opinion in Dobbs that allows laws like Idahos to be enforcedwas upset that not enough time had been devoted to the existence of the words unborn child in the law about emergency room care.