Supreme Court briefly issues opinion allowing Idaho abortions

The US Supreme Court appears ready to allow abortions in cases of medical emergencies in Idaho, after briefly publishing – and then deleting – an opinion on its website.

According to a report on Bloomberg, the court will rule that the state cannot deny emergency abortions to women whose health is in danger, despite a near-total ban.

In a statement, the court said that its final decision had “not been released” and that a document was “inadvertently and briefly” uploaded to its website.

The spokesman said that a ruling would be released in due course.

The inadvertent publication of the opinion comes two years after the leaking of the court’s decision to overturn the national right to abortion access, known as Roe v Wade.

Since then, a patchwork of abortion laws have been established as more conservative states, such as Idaho, restrict rights to the procedure.

The document posted online on Idaho suggested that the court would rule that it should not have become involved in the case so quickly, Bloomberg reported.

The report added that the court would reinstate an order that permitted Idaho hospitals to perform emergency abortions to protect patient’s health.

If that is the case, the case would continue at a federal appeals court.

The Biden administration sued Idaho over its near-total abortion ban in 2022, with Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra saying that “women should not have to be near death to get care”.

Idaho countered, saying that the federal law – known as Emergency Medical Treatment and Labour Act or Emtala – cannot supersede state law.

The court’s nine justices appeared divided during earlier arguments on the case.