President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice will pull out of a lawsuit that argued an Idaho state law limiting abortions is preempted by federal emergency care requirements, according to a Tuesday filing in a concurrent case challenging the law.
The formal motion to dismiss the case is likely to come on Wednesday, legal counsel for St. Luke’s Health System said Tuesday of a “courtesy” email it received a day prior from federal attorneys.
It is an early, but largely anticipated, signal that the DOJ will not continue legal battles from the prior administration that sought to increase access to abortion services.
The government’s case kicked off in 2022 in response to an Idaho law that made it a crime to perform or assist with an abortion (but has since been expanded to include exceptions for life-threatening scenarios).
The Biden administration interpreted the law as conflicting with the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), which it said requires hospitals to provide emergency services including abortion regardless of state law. In arguments, it cited circumstances in which Idaho hospitals were forced to airlift patients to out-of-state facilities for emergency care due to the ban.
That case made early trips to the Supreme Court last year that ended in a temporary stay of Idaho’s abortion ban, which has since been playing out in the lower courts.
St. Luke’s, an Idaho-based nonprofit, filed its own complaint in mid January citing concerns that the existing injunction “could be vacated if the United States were to dismiss its related lawsuit.” The court was initially reluctant to grant an expedited request “based on speculation” and told the health system it would reconsider “if the United States unequivocally signals its intention to dismiss its complaint or seek to vacate the injunction” before a preliminary injunction hearing scheduled for Wednesday could be held.
St. Luke’s recent filing cited the courtesy email from the government as just that.
“As a courtesy, I wanted to let you know that a few minutes ago I reached out to counsel for the State of Idaho and the Idaho Legislature, informing them that the United States would like to dismiss its claims in the above case, without prejudice,” the email to St. Luke’s read, per Tuesday’s filing. “I stated that, if possible, the United States would like to file the Stipulation of Dismissal on Wednesday, March 5, 2025.”
The dismissal has not yet been filed as of Wednesday morning.
On Tuesday a federal judge granted St. Luke’s request for a temporary restraining order “to maintain the status quo” restricting the abortion ban “for a short period of time after the [Wednesday] hearing, which will allow the Court time to fully consider the arguments [for and against a preliminary injunction] offered at the hearing.”
DOJ has not yet signaled a shift in another EMTALA case brought by the state of Texas against the federal government. In it, the Biden administration again asserted that EMTALA preempts state law criminalizing providers who deliver abortion services. Lower courts ruled against the administration and, in October, the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal.
Additionally, the new administration’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has not made changes to its online resources outlining EMTALA policy—though a notice still reads that the department may not enforce its 2022 guidelines relating to emergency abortion and state-level restrictions in Texas due to the court rulings.
Until this week, comments from President Donald Trump, an executive order pulling federal funding of abortion services and a Jan. 27 release from HHS were the primary signals of impending changes in the federal government’s interpretation of abortion laws and policies. That HHS statement outlined instruction for the HHS Office for Civil Rights to “reevaluate its regulations and guidance pertaining to Federal laws on conscience and religious exercise,” a resurrection of similar policy from Trump’s first term.
Also in the air are legal battles over access to mifepristone, a widely used abortion drug. In a Monday filing in a Texas federal court on one such case, the federal government requested up to two months to reevaluate its legal position in a mifepristone case to “ensure that the new Administration … is able to familiarize themselves with the issues in this case. This requested extension is consistent with extensions that the new Administration is seeking in other mifepristone-related litigation.”
Abortion access advocates have denounced the administration’s apparent pullback in the EMTALA case.
“The Trump administration has made clear they would let women die rather than get an abortion,” Deirdre Schifeling, chief political and advocacy officer for the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a Tuesday statement. “…On the campaign trail, President Trump repeatedly promised not to interfere with women’s ability to access abortion and patients’ ability to get the care they need. His failure to keep that promise, six weeks into his administration, goes against the will of the vast majority of people in this country who want and expect their loved ones to be able to get the care they need at a hospital.”
“When Republicans say 'leave it to the states,' that's code for 'let women die.'" Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, said in a Wednesday statement. "The blood of every woman who has died and will die is on the hands of the Republicans who have chosen to abandon women in this country.”