Lankford Continues Work to Protect the Health and Safety of Women and Children After Disappointing Supreme Court Decision

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – Senator James Lankford (R-OK) issued the following statement after the Supreme Court ruled in Idaho v. United States and Moyle v. United States of America.

“Idaho, like other states, passed laws to protect babies and moms after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The Biden Administration is so obsessed with abortion they are trying to use a federal law, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act that does not mention abortion, to advance their extreme abortion agenda by telling moms they will not receive emergency care under Idaho’s new law. This couldn’t be further from the truth—pregnant women’s lives are protected in every state. The Supreme Court should have affirmed a state’s right to protect every life, but sadly has sidestepped the question on a technicality.”

Lankford joined the amicus brief supporting the state of Idaho in defending its pro-life law, the Defense of Life Act, against the Biden Administration’s efforts to override it with its wrongful reinterpretation of federal law, which clarified:

1. The Administration is wrongfully misinterpreting the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) into federal agency guidance and claiming it provides a national abortion mandate for “stabilizing” abortions.
2. EMTALA does not mention abortion in any capacity, and the statute’s purpose is to ensure any person seeking help in an emergency room receives help regardless of his or her ability to pay.
3. EMTALA protects women in active labor and their unborn child(ren).
4. There is no federal right to an abortion.
5. SCOTUS ruled in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organizationthere is no constitutional right to an abortion, and it returned abortion-related decisions to the states.

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