Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/23pdf/23-726_6jgm.pdf
Page Number: 32

Cite as:  603 U. S. ____ (2024) 

9 

ALITO, J., dissenting 

abortions  that  the  Government  says  EMTALA  mandates. 
It  would  have  been  strange  indeed  if  a  Congress  that  re-
peatedly sought to prevent federal funding of abortions sim-
ultaneously enacted a law that, as interpreted by the Gov-
ernment, requires hospitals and physicians to perform that
very same procedure.

The Government’s reading of EMTALA is doubly strange
given  that  the  President  who  signed  that  law  repeatedly 
promised not to use federal funds to subsidize or require the
provision of abortions.  Less than three months before sign-
ing EMTALA, President Reagan told participants in the an-
nual March for Life that “the resources of government are
not  [to  be]  used  to  promote  or  perform  abortions.”    The 
American  Presidency  Project,  Remarks  to  Participants  in
the March for Life Rally (Jan. 22, 1986).  The next year, he
touted his administration’s work “to restrict the use of Fed-
eral funds to perform abortions.”  Id., Remarks to Partici-
pants  in  the  March  for  Life  Rally  (Jan.  22,  1987).    In  an-
other  1987  speech,  he  promised  that  his  administration
would “oppose any legislation that would require individu-
als or institutions, public or private, to finance or perform
abortions.”  Id.,  Remarks  at  a  White  House  Briefing  for 
Right to Life Activists (July 30, 1987).  And his 1986 and 
1987 messages to Congress repeated that promise.  See id., 
Message to the Congress on “A Quest for Excellence” (Jan.
27,  1987);  id.,  Message  to  the  Congress  on  America’s
Agenda for the Future (Feb. 6, 1986). 

Around  the  same  time,  President  Reagan’s  HHS  Secre-
tary  testified  before  Congress  that  “the  Administration
steadfastly  opposes  [the]  creation  of  [a]  program  which 
would  encourage,  promote  or  finance  the  performance  of 
abortions.”  Statement of the Hon. Margaret M. Heckler, in 
Budget Reconciliation: Hearings before the Senate Commit-
tee on Finance, 99th Cong., 1st Sess., pt. 1, p. 273 (1985).  It 
beggars  belief  that  President  Reagan  would  have  happily