Latest news with #St.Luke's
Yahoo
a day ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Idaho rethinks LGBTQ rights as laws, symbols, and support face pushback
Stories by Idaho Statesman journalists, with AI summarization This collection of stories examines recent efforts by Idaho lawmakers and officials to restrict LGBTQ rights in public spaces, marriage, sports, education, and community symbols. State legislators advanced a resolution to revoke same-sex marriage rights and praised decisions by Boise State's women's volleyball team to opt out of matches involving transgender athletes. Businesses like Micron and St. Luke's have pulled back public support for diversity, equity and inclusion programs, with St. Luke's employees voicing disappointment over the decision not to fly the Pride flag during Pride Month. Boise officials kept flying the Pride flag at City Hall despite a new law banning non-government flags, and city leaders debated how to navigate the law's lack of penalties. At the Nampa Public Library, a youth club flyer led to public disputes, while statewide book bans faced lawsuits over their impact on LGBTQ content and First Amendment rights. Read the stories below. Boise State has forfeited two volleyball games against San Jose State this season, including one that was scheduled for Thursday. | Published November 19, 2024 | Read Full Story by Shaun Goodwin 'Unfortunately ... there are Republican factions that have infiltrated Idaho who only support constitutional rights if they are in alignment with what they believe.' | Published November 23, 2024 | Read Full Story by Carolyn Komatsoulis 'This is yet another example of the extreme wing of the Republican Party ginning up divisive social issues in order to create problems where none exist,' said Idaho's Democratic leadership. | Published January 7, 2025 | Read Full Story by Ian Max Stevenson Idaho voters should have enough self-respect to punish this abuse of government power at the ballot box. | Opinion | Published February 5, 2025 | Read Full Story by Bryan Clark Boise 'will continue' to fly the Pride flag outside City Hall, a spokesperson said. She did not answer a question about whether the city knew that it was illegal. | Published April 11, 2025 | Read Full Story by Sarah Cutler Idaho companies like Micron and St. Luke's face growing political pressure on diversity-related initiatives. | Published June 2, 2025 | Read Full Story by Angela Palermo We don't approach this viewpoint from a political or personal value system. We approach it from the lens through which we healthcare workers view every patient encounter... | Opinion | Published June 2, 2025 | Read Full Story by Undersigned St. Luke's employees The Trump administration has been rolling back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. | Published May 31, 2025 | Read Full Story by Carolyn Komatsoulis Laws like this one can be problematic, a lawyer said. | Published June 5, 2025 | Read Full Story by Carolyn Komatsoulis The summary above was drafted with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists in our News division. All stories listed were reported, written and edited by McClatchy journalists.
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
San Diego Episcopal church breaks ground on 78-unit affordable housing complex
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — The Episcopal Diocese of San Diego began construction Friday on a a 78-unit affordable apartment complex in North Park, joining a growing list of community groups to repurpose their underutilized land for housing. Located near the intersection of Gunn and 30th streets on the St. Luke's Episcopal Church grounds, the homes in the future eight-story, Craftsman-style complex will be reserved for households earning anywhere from 30% to 80% of the area's average income. The project, which is a joint effort with St. Luke's and developer Trestle Build, is the first to be realized under a church initiative that has been years in the making. Called Mission Real Estate, the program aims to encourage faith groups to transform their land for 'mission-related' projects. SDUSD takes step toward creating affordable housing for staff 'This groundbreaking is more than a construction milestone,' Bishop Susan Brown Snook said during the groundbreaking. 'It is a testament to the power of faith, the power of community collaboration and the power of innovation in tackling one of our community's most important challenges: the challenge of affordable housing.' The project is funded in part by a $3.9 million loan from the California Housing Finance Agency and was supported by the city of San Diego as part of its 'Complete Communities: Housing Solutions' initiative, state and local officials said at the groundbreaking. 'This project is a part of the solution of two of San Diego's biggest challenges: the cost of living and our homelessness crisis,' City Councilmember Stephen Whitburn, who represents North Park, said. 'I so appreciate you not only talking about the need to find solutions, but actually being a part of the solution for these two issues.' When the complex opens, church leaders say they hope it can serve as a blueprint for other ways local faith groups can step up to close gaps in critical services for their communities. 'Housing the foundation of well-being to any family and any community,' Brown Snook said. 'We hope that this project at St. Luke's inspires many others … to address our community's urgent need for affordable housing and other services in our community.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
22-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Emergency abortions are now allowed — at only some Idaho hospitals, judge rules
Idaho doctors can perform an abortion as stabilizing care during a medical emergency, a federal judge ruled Thursday — so long as they're at the right hospital. U.S. District Court Judge B. Lynn Winmill ruled that only St. Luke's Health System and its medical providers are protected from Idaho's near-total abortion ban where it intersects with emergency care. The ruling created a preliminary injunction in the case between the health system, which is Idaho's largest, and Attorney General Raúl Labrador. Spokespersons for St. Luke's and the Attorney General's Office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. St. Luke's sued Labrador in January over abortion restrictions it said are incompatible with its obligation to provide patients with stabilizing care under the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTALA. Idaho law only allows abortion in some instances: ectopic or molar pregnancies, reported cases of rape or incest, and procedures that prevent the death of a pregnant patient. Since abortion restrictions took effect in Idaho in 2022, following the U.S. Supreme Court's reversal of Roe v. Wade, doctors have said the state's laws make it unclear whether they can perform an abortion if a patient's health, not life, is at risk. At the time St. Luke's sued the state, the hospital system said it wanted to preserve an injunction already in place allowing all Idaho hospitals to perform abortions in medical emergencies. That injunction — which Winmill issued in 2022 — stemmed from a Department of Justice lawsuit against Idaho also over EMTALA. Republican President Donald Trump's administration dropped the lawsuit, which was filed under former Democratic President Joe Biden, earlier this month. A temporary injunction was in place in the St. Luke's case since then. The decision Thursday marks the narrowest emergency abortion protection since June 2024. For about six months last year — between when the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the DOJ case and when it remanded it back to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals — Idaho's ban was fully in effect. St. Luke's said it airlifted six patients out of the state for emergency abortion access during that time. Winmill said in his Thursday decision that 'St. Luke's does not exist in a vacuum,' and the health system said it may not be able to handle the strain of taking patient transfers from other hospitals not protected by the injunction. Still, the judge sided with an argument from Labrador that the scope of the injunction was too broad when the health care system is the only party in the lawsuit. The judge denied a motion from the attorney general to dismiss the case.
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
New court order shields certain Idaho doctors from prosecution for emergency abortion care
Supporters hold signs in support of their doctors and abortion access at a rally on April 21, 2024, at the Idaho Statehouse in Boise. (Otto Kitsinger for States Newsroom) Physicians at Idaho's largest health system will continue to be shielded from criminal prosecution for providing abortion care in an emergency after a federal court judge issued a new protection order Thursday in a lawsuit over the state's abortion ban. The directive applies only to St. Luke's Health System and its medical providers as the sole plaintiff suing Idaho over restrictions hospital officials say conflict with the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTALA. That law requires any hospital that accepts Medicare funding to provide stabilizing treatment to patients who come to emergency rooms regardless of their ability to pay. St. Luke's operates eight of the 39 hospitals in Idaho that accept Medicare funding, and it delivered more than 40% of the 22,000 babies born in the state in 2024. U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill, an appointee of former Democratic President Bill Clinton, cited the original intention of the law in his Thursday order. Republican President Ronald Reagan signed the law in response to 'patient dumping,' when hospitals would turn people away for being uninsured or covered by Medicaid. 'When EMTALA passed, these 'undesirable' patients were the indigent. Today, they are pregnant women,' Winmill wrote in Thursday's decision. The U.S. Department of Justice, under the Biden administration, sued Idaho in 2022. The case reached the U.S. Supreme Court in April 2024, but justices decided they couldn't rule on it at that juncture and returned it to the lower courts for further argument. After Republican President Donald Trump's election victory, St. Luke's filed its own separate lawsuit against Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador because the hospital's leadership anticipated Trump's Justice Department would drop the case. The DOJ attorneys moved to dismiss the case on March 5, dissolving the previous injunction. A health system is fighting Idaho's abortion ban. It's not its first controversial stance. 'Specifically, the attorney general, including his officers, employees, and agents, are prohibited from initiating any criminal prosecution against, attempting to suspend or revoke the professional license of, or seeking to impose any other form of liability on, St. Luke's or any of its medical providers based on their performance of conduct that is defined as an 'abortion' under Idaho Code, but that is necessary to 'stabilize' a patient presenting with an 'emergency medical condition' as required by EMTALA,' Winmill wrote. Winmill said it was clear that without the injunction, St. Luke's and its patients would be harmed, because for three months in 2024 when the injunction was not in place, six patients were airlifted out of state if they needed to end their pregnancies to preserve their health. That situation only came up once in the entire year before. The cases these situations apply to are rare, physicians have said, but the consequences can be severe if left untreated. The most common issue is when a pregnant patient's water breaks before the fetus is viable. That can quickly progress to an infection that can cause great damage to the kidneys and reproductive organs, jeopardizing a patient's ability to have children in the future. Labrador's office asked Winmill to dismiss the case, arguing there is no conflict between Idaho's abortion law and EMTALA, and maintaining that the abortion ban protects 'both the mother and their unborn child.' Earlier this month, Labrador's deputies argued at a hearing that case law from the Idaho Supreme Court's interpretation of the ban does not require an immanency of death, only a subjective, good faith medical judgment that the person's life is threatened. At the same time Deputy Attorney General David Myers told Winmill there is no medical situation in which it is necessary to perform an abortion as stabilizing care. Winmill wrote in his decision that while that is true of their interpretation, there is still a conflict. 'The Defense of Life Act plainly requires that an abortion is 'necessary to prevent the death.' If 'imminent' is not the standard, how close must the woman be to death for the abortion to be 'necessary'?' he wrote. 'There is no way for physicians to know this, and the price of falling on the wrong side of the line is a felony conviction.' EMTALA, he added, uses much less categorical language: 'such medical treatment of the condition as may be necessary to assure, within reasonable medical probability, that no material deterioration of the condition is likely to result.' North Idaho legislators bring bill to add health exceptions to state's abortion ban The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, a group of more than 60,000 physicians, issued a statement Friday celebrating the decision, saying it was a relief. 'OB-GYNs see every day that bans on abortion cannot exist in concert with EMTALA, because bans prevent clinicians from providing patients with the full range of emergency care that they might need,' said Molly Meegan, chief legal officer and general counsel for the organization, in the statement. 'ACOG is grateful that our members in Idaho now have the ability to provide evidence-based medical care to patients facing obstetric emergencies without fear of prosecution.' Idaho's abortion ban applies to all stages of pregnancy and includes an exception to prevent the pregnant patient's death, but not to preserve their health. Physicians found in violation of the law are subject to two to five years in prison, the loss of their medical license, and civil penalties. Without a health exception, which the Idaho Legislature has failed to enact despite repeated pleas from doctors and other providers, doctors have said they cannot terminate a pregnancy to prevent someone from experiencing detrimental health effects without fear of prosecution. The health system also says it could lose Medicare funds for violating EMTALA and the laws have already been driving physicians to practice in other states. The injunction will stay in place as the case proceeds, according to Winmill's order. The next hearing date has not yet been scheduled. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
05-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Trump administration drops Biden lawsuit over emergency abortions in Idaho
By Brendan Pierson -U.S. President Donald Trump's administration on Wednesday dropped a lawsuit that had been filed by the previous Biden administration in a bid to stop Idaho from enforcing its near-total abortion ban in medical emergencies. The ban still remains blocked in emergencies due to a similar lawsuit brought by a hospital system. The government's voluntary dismissal of its lawsuit against the state automatically lifts a preliminary order by the judge overseeing the case. See for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories. By signing up, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy. That order had blocked Idaho from enforcing its ban in cases where doctors believe abortion is needed to save a pregnant woman's life or prevent serious harm to her health. U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill late on Tuesday issued a new temporary restraining order in a separate lawsuit against the state by St. Luke's Health System that continues, for now, to bar the state from enforcing the ban in such emergencies. Winmill, who is presiding over both lawsuits, is scheduled to hear arguments Wednesday afternoon on the Boise-based hospital system's motion for a longer-term order limiting the state ban, and on the state's motion to dismiss the case. St. Luke's asked for the temporary restraining order on Tuesday after being informed that the Trump administration would be dropping its case. Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador, a Republican, has asked Winmill to narrow his restraining order to prevent enforcement only against St. Luke's. The judge has not ruled on that request. Idaho passed its near-total abortion ban, which includes an exception for saving the mother's life, in 2020 as a so-called "trigger law". It was set to take effect when the U.S. Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade, its landmark decision that had established abortion rights nationwide, which it did in June 2022. In August 2022, the Biden administration sued the state, alleging that the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, which requires hospitals to provide "stabilizing care" to patients with emergency medical conditions, trumps the state ban in medical emergencies. Winmill agreed and barred the state from enforcing the law in such cases while the lawsuit went forward. The state appealed that ruling, eventually to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to intervene. St. Luke's sued Labrador in January, saying it would be unable to provide required emergency care if the state ban were to go into effect.
