Justice Sonia Sotomayor botched the status of abortion laws Wednesday when she said some states bar all abortions, even in cases where the mother’s life is at stake.
She was sparring with Joshua Turner, a lawyer defending Idaho’s law, which does generally bar abortions but also includes a mother’s life exception.
“What you’re saying is that no state in the nation — and there are some right now that don’t even have that as an exception to their anti-abortion laws — what you’re saying is there is no federal law on the books that prohibits any state from saying even if a woman will die you cannot perform an abortion,” she said.
“I know of no state that doesn’t include a life-saving exception,” Mr. Turner replied.
“Some have been debating it at least,” Justice Sotomayor said.
Mr. Turner appears to be correct.
The Kaiser Family Foundation, a leading source of information on abortion, said no state lacks a life-saving exception, though five including Idaho lack a mother’s health exception.
Data maintained by the Guttmacher Institute, an abortion-rights think tank, also says every state with an abortion ban has an exception for the mother’s life.
The case before the justices involved the Biden administration’s attempt to use a federal law, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, to try to expand abortion access in states where it is severely restricted.
EMTALA requires doctors to provide emergency medical care to stabilize patients.
The administration says that means if a doctor believes abortion is the right standard of care for cases where a pregnant woman’s health is in danger, it can be performed even if it would violate state laws.
Idaho argues that the standard of care must be considered based on state law.