Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson refused to use the word “woman” in her partial dissent Thursday in cases considering Idaho’s abortion ban.
Rather than answering the cases’ central dispute about whether the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) requires doctors to perform emergency abortions in conflict with Idaho’s pro-life law, the Supreme Court dismissed the cases as “improvidently granted,” reinstating an injunction on Idaho’s abortion ban issued by a lower court and sending the issue back to the Ninth Circuit. The language in Jackson’s solo opinion, in which she concurred in the decision to reinstate the injunction and dissented from the decision to dismiss the case, is conspicuously free of gendered terms.
“So, to be clear: Today’s decision is not a victory for pregnant patients in Idaho,” Jackson wrote. “It is delay. While this Court dawdles and the country waits, pregnant people experiencing emergency medical conditions remain in a precarious position, as their doctors are kept in the dark about what the law requires.”
Jackson continued to write that “for as long as we refuse to declare what the law requires, pregnant patients in Idaho, Texas, and elsewhere will be paying the price.” (RELATED: ‘Woman’ Selected As Dictionary.com Word Of The Year After Searches Spike During Ketanji Brown-Jackson Hearing)
WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 7: U.S. President Joe Biden greets Supreme Court Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson as he enters the House chamber to deliver the annual State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress at the Capital building on March 7, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Shawn Thew-Pool/Getty Images)
During her confirmation hearing in 2022, Jackson told Republican Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn that she could not provide the definition of the word “woman.”
“I’m not a biologist,” she said in response.
A concurring opinion written by Justice Elena Kagan, which Jackson joined in part, did use the word woman.
“Because the Idaho law conflicts with that requirement— prevents hospitals from doing what EMTALA commands—the Court is right to dissolve its stay of the District Court’s injunction,” Kagan wrote. “Doing so will again give Idaho women access to all the needed medical treatments that EMTALA guarantees.”
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