This week, the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case over the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, or EMTALA, which ensures access to emergency care at federally funded hospitals, including emergency abortion care, which might be necessary when a patient suffers a life-threatening condition for which the only “cure” is to terminate the pregnancy. In a country facing a worsening maternal healthcare crisis, wherein the vast majority of pregnancy-related deaths are preventable, one would think elected officials who purport to care about “life” would do everything possible to improve care for the most vulnerable in our society. But, of course, the anti-abortion movement broadly, and the state of Idaho specifically, is more concerned with controlling people and their reproductive decisions than keeping actual people alive. If Idaho gets its way in court, maternal healthcare will only worsen across the country, writes Karen Thompson of Pregnancy Justice.

Meanwhile, journalist Mary Tuma reports on the growing number of cases in which physicians are performing C-sections as some sort of abortion substitute in states where restrictions pose legal threats—or in states where doctors aren’t being trained to perform the procedure due to stigma.

“We are certainly going to see more of this happening in abortion-banned states,” Dr. Michele Heisler, medical director at Physicians for Human Rights and a professor of public health at the University of Michigan, told Tuma. “We have these punitive laws instilling fear in doctors and are losing medical abortion expertise. It’s a dangerous combination that is creating a terrifying new reality.”

With this latest development exacerbating an already fraught legal landscape, it’s difficult to feel anything resembling hope. But it doesn’t take a lot of digging to find reasons for optimism.

On Monday, the Biden Administration announced a new rule that protects the medical records of abortion patients who might face criminalization, particularly if they traveled from an abortion-banned state to a state where care is legal. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission also finally released rules for the recently passed Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. Among other things, the federal legislation protects a worker if they need to take unpaid leave for a miscarriage, a stillbirth, or an abortion, as Bryce Covert reports for The Nation. And on Tuesday, Maine Governor Janet Mills signed legislation that “asserts that gender-affirming care and reproductive health care are ‘legal rights’ in Maine,” journalist Erin Reed reported at the LA Blade. Lawmakers had faced attacks on social media and even bomb threats as they pushed for the legislation to pass. They didn’t waver and passed the bill. Maine is now the 16th state to issue explicit protections for transgender people and abortion providers and patients, as Reed reported.

May we all keep practicing the discipline of hope.

Regina Mahone

Senior Editor