WASHINGTON—With its decision to dismiss Moyle v. United States, the Supreme Court today allowed the Biden administration to twist a federal law on hospital care to mandate that all states provide abortions, including those with laws protecting the unborn.

The Heritage Foundation’s Sarah Parshall Perry, a senior legal fellow, and Melanie Israel, a visiting fellow, made the following statement:

“While not a decision on the merits of the case, the Supreme Court’s disastrous decision to dismiss Moyle v. United States as an 'improvidently granted' case eliminates, at least for now, the chance to clarify that states can and should enact their pro-life laws, just as Idaho did with its Defense of Life Act. The Biden administration’s manipulation of federal law should not go unchallenged.

“Congress passed the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) almost 40 years ago to ensure indigent patients received emergency treatment in federally funded hospitals, not to mandate a national hospital abortion policy.

“Abortion is not medical care. Even if the Court ultimately allows the Biden administration and its abortion lobbyists to twist federal laws like EMTALA—which explicitly acknowledges that unborn children have a right to life-saving medical care—to fit its extreme abortion agenda, policymakers can correct this horrible outcome.”