FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 24, 2024
CONTACT:
Tina Pinedo, DREDF Communications Director, media@dredf.org
BERKELEY, CA – On October 22, 2024, Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF) and sixteen other disability rights organizations and experts filed an amicus or “friend-of-the-court” brief in the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The question before the court is whether a federal law called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) “preempts,” or overrides, Idaho’s state abortion ban. The court’s answer to this question will affect whether Idaho can start enforcing its restrictive abortion ban again. If Idaho is allowed to enforce its ban, pregnant people with disabilities will be harmed without access to emergency abortion care.
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court considered whether EMTALA preempts Idaho’s abortion ban. DREDF, alongside other disability rights organizations and experts, filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court. The brief argued that EMTALA preempts Idaho’s ban and highlighted how pregnant people with disabilities would be harmed without access to health-preserving emergency abortion care. The Supreme Court ultimately dismissed the case for being wrongfully granted and sent the case back down to the Ninth Circuit for review. Learn more about the history of the case on our website.
DREDF’s brief filed with the Ninth Circuit yesterday similarly highlights how Idaho’s ban conflicts with the protections guaranteed by EMTALA, and discusses the importance of access to emergency abortion care for the disability community. Pregnant people with disabilities are more likely than non-disabled people to experience almost all adverse pregnancy outcomes. Disabled people are eleven times more likely to die during childbirth–making access to emergency abortion crucial to protect our health and lives. Additionally, people with disabilities already face substantial logistical, physical, economic, and attitudinal barriers to medical care that would be exacerbated by the enforcement of Idaho’s abortion ban. Put simply, people with disabilities are more likely to need access to emergency abortion care than nondisabled people and are especially likely to be harmed by additional barriers to access.
DREDF believes everyone should have access to safe, affordable, accessible, culturally competent abortion care, and the ability to get an abortion should not hinge on the existence of a medical emergency. In light of this, DREDF is committed to continually fighting to protect the bodily and decisional autonomy of disabled and non-disabled Americans alike.
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Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, founded in 1979, is a leading national civil rights law and policy center directed by individuals with disabilities and parents who have children with disabilities. DREDF’s mission is to advance the civil and human rights of people with disabilities through legal advocacy, training, education and public policy and legislative development. For more information, visit dredf.org.