Women Enabled International (WEI), the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF), Legal Voice, and Covington & Burling LLP filed an amicus brief on behalf of thirteen disability rights organizations and scholars in the United States Supreme Court, advocating for the Court to uphold the federal protections of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) and allow doctors to provide necessary abortions in the case of medical emergencies, which Idaho’s abortion ban currently criminalizes. The brief highlights that people with disabilities will suffer disproportionate harm if Idaho is permitted to criminalize health-preserving and life-saving abortion care. 

WEI, DREDF, and Allen & Overy’s amicus brief argues the following key points:

• Congress enacted EMTALA to ensure that at-risk people—including people with disabilities—receive stabilizing medical treatment in emergency situations.  It is clear from the legislative history of EMTALA and other healthcare legislation that Congress intends for disabled people to have full access to all healthcare services without discrimination.
• Disabled people are particularly likely to need the stabilizing abortion care guaranteed under EMTALA. People with disabilities are more likely to have serious pregnancy-related health complications and less likely to have access to regular prenatal and primary care. This makes it more likely that disabled people will need health-preserving, stabilizing care in hospital emergency rooms.
• Without EMTALA’s protections, state abortion bans will undermine the medical system in important ways, causing additional harm to people with disabilities. Idaho’s ban has driven qualified healthcare providers from the state with the fear of prosecution, leading to a significant gap in obstetric care. Disabled people without financial resources face logistical barriers—including transportation barriers—to access essential medical care.