Health
Biden administration says doctors must offer abortion in medical emergencies
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:
- The Biden administration said on Monday that healthcare providers must offer abortion services if the mother’s life is at risk.
- Procedures conducted under medical emergencies would be protected under federal law regardless of existing state bans.
- The guidance comes days after President Biden signed an executive order easing access to abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last month.
The Biden administration on Monday told hospitals that they “must” provide abortion services if the life of the mother is at risk. It added that federal law on emergency treatment guidelines preempts state laws in jurisdictions that now ban the procedure without any exceptions following the Supreme Court’s decision to end a constitutional right to abortion.
The Department of Health and Human Services cited requirements on medical facilities in the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). The law requires medical facilities to determine whether a person seeking treatment may be in labor or whether they face an emergency health situation — or one that could develop into an emergency — and to provide treatment.
“If a physician believes that a pregnant patient presenting at an emergency department is experiencing an emergency medical condition as defined by EMTALA, and that abortion is the stabilizing treatment necessary to resolve that condition, the physician must provide that treatment,” the agency’s guidance states.
“When a state law prohibits abortion and does not include an exception for the life of the pregnant person — or draws the exception more narrowly than EMTALA’s emergency medical condition definition — that state law is preempted.”
The department said emergency conditions include “ectopic pregnancy, complications of pregnancy loss, or emergent hypertensive disorders, such as preeclampsia with severe features.”
“It is critical that providers know that a physician or other qualified medical personnel’s professional and legal duty to provide stabilizing medical treatment to a patient who presents to the emergency department and is found to have an emergency medical condition preempts any directly conflicting state law or mandate that might otherwise prohibit such treatment,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra wrote in a letter to health care providers.
The department says its guidance doesn’t reflect new policy, but merely reminds doctors and providers of their existing obligations under federal law.
“Under federal law, providers in emergency situations are required to provide stabilizing care to someone with an emergency medical condition, including abortion care if necessary, regardless of the state where they live,” said Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure. “CMS will do everything within our authority to ensure that patients get the care they need.”
Source: Axios
CharlieSeattle
July 12, 2022 at 6:40 pm
Biden is a FFFFFking Traitor!
D.D.
July 12, 2022 at 6:42 pm
Doctors ALSO HAVE A OATH TO UPHOLD !!! MAKING NATURAL BORN PEOPLE INTO UN-NATURAL WHATEVER THEY WANT TO BE CALLED IS NOT PART IF IT…
Everett
July 12, 2022 at 7:10 pm
Yes, they took an oath, but unfortunately, they, like the many treasonous lefty politicians in D.C., could care less about it. But I think they had better have PLENTY of substantial evidence before they start carving and murdering children
C C Shomaster
July 13, 2022 at 11:23 am
There is a reason why doctors go to medical school. If Biden thinks that this order will help women get abortions, he is even more delusional than I thought. An ectopic pregnancy, pre-eclampsia, or any other reason for the above mentioned reasons for allowing an abortion for saving the life of the mother is also a potential risk for the mother of loosing her fertility forever. In the case of an ectopic pregnancy, she will definitely loose the Fallopian tube on the side of the ectopic pregnancy! These emergencies are no joke, most of the time a woman is saved, but there times (usually when the woman has had no prenatal care) when the mother dies.
If Biden thinks he can bully doctors into performing abortions with this statute, he is sorely mistaken. Perhaps at first there might be an increase in abortions from pressure on the poor doctors who allow themselves to be bullied. Eventually though, there won’t be any repeat offenders who are merely seeking a way to rid themselves of a “problem”. That actually would be a good thing!
RSM
July 12, 2022 at 7:21 pm
People forget that Obamacare requires medical personnel to perform all medical procedures. There are some religious exemptions about not providing birth control. But if push comes to shove, doctors and other can lose their licenses and certifications if they refuse to perform gender reassignment surgeries, or prescribe hormone blockers to halt puberty, etc.
Militaryvet
July 12, 2022 at 10:11 pm
Sorry gender reassignment surgery is cosmetic not life threatening.
Dr. Reverend BigBoa
July 12, 2022 at 8:38 pm
Hmmmm,,,,, doesn’t this ignore the states autonomy?
All they have to do is declare every abortion an “emergency procedure”. I would think we haven’t heard the last of this. Of course Smokin’ Joe would never ignore a ruling by the courts.
Ralph Howarth
July 13, 2022 at 1:20 am
Healthcare is not even listed as a federal purview. The states have never ratified any measure consenting to granting the federal government to determine healthcare so, no, federal rules on healthcare do not trump state laws. Abortion as is is an elective procedure. As rare as such emergencies are, its called delivering a baby prematurely.
Lisa
July 13, 2022 at 7:37 am
am I missing something here? I have not heard ONE STATE saying a pregnant mother whose life is in danger banned from getting an abortion…again, did I miss something?
Joanne Mortensen
July 13, 2022 at 1:52 pm
thee insane dims are still Murdering babies folks this is population control 101