Fried Frank Files Pro Bono Amicus Brief in Abortion Case Before US Supreme Court

On March 28, 2024, Fried Frank filed an amicus brief in the United States Supreme Court on behalf of Physicians for Reproductive Health (PRH), a physician-led national advocacy organization that organizes, mobilizes and amplifies the voices of doctors to advance sexual and reproductive health, rights and justice. The amicus brief urges the Supreme Court to affirm the judgment of the United States District Court for the District of Idaho and uphold the injunction prohibiting the enforcement of Idaho's abortion ban, which, if allowed to take effect, would prevent medical providers and hospitals from providing stabilizing abortion care that would otherwise be required under the decades old Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA). The brief presents harrowing first-hand accounts from PRH physicians' own experiences where restrictive abortion bans, such as Idaho's, have impeded their ability to provide pregnant patients with the necessary stabilizing abortion care required under EMTALA. Through these narratives, the brief demonstrates the widespread, and heartbreaking, consequences of allowing state-level abortion bans to vitiate the preemptive effect of the federal statute EMTALA.

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments about whether EMTALA preempts Idaho's abortion ban on April 24, 2024.

The brief can be found linked below.

The Fried Frank team included partner Janice Mac Avoy, special counsel Laura Israel Sinrod and Anne Aufhauser, and associates Katherine St. Romain, Corinne R. Moini, Katherine Borchert, Antonio DelGrande and Rachel Demma.

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