Yes. It's long (I think since the early days in the 80s) been a tenet in mobile phone industry that emergency calls always need to be free. You route them best to your technical ability - anything else is unethical.

With any cellular phone it's possible to dial the local emergency number.

Doesn't matter if your current operator has coverage, the phone will find the network that has the best coverage. There's still explicit validation of this capability for new phone devices.

You don't even need a SIM card.

But now Apple has ended the practice.