WASHINGTON – The Trump administration has announced that it will reverse the directive given to hospitals across the country, instructing them to perform emergency abortions in situations where they are necessary to stabilize a woman’s medical condition.
This directive was initially issued to hospitals in 2022, shortly after a significant shift in abortion rights following a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Biden administration had implemented this guidance to ensure that women facing medical emergencies could access abortions to prevent serious complications such as organ loss or severe hemorrhaging.
A previous investigation by the Associated Press revealed that, despite the guidance, numerous pregnant women seeking emergency abortions were being turned away from hospitals, even when their lives were at risk.
Biden argued that hospitals — including states with near-total bans — needed to provide emergency abortions under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. That law requires emergency rooms that receive Medicare dollars to provide an exam and stabilizing treatment for all patients. Nearly all emergency rooms in the U.S. rely on Medicare funds.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which investigates hospitals that are not in compliance, said in a statement on Tuesday that it was rescinding the Biden-era guidance. The agency, however, will continue to enforce the law, “including for identified emergency medical conditions that place the health of a pregnant woman or her unborn child in serious jeopardy.”
But CMS added that it would also “rectify any perceived legal confusion and instability created by the former administration’s actions.”
The Biden administration sued Idaho over its abortion law that initially only allowed abortions to save the life of the mother. The federal government had argued before the U.S. Supreme Court last year that Idaho’s law was in conflict with the federal law, which requires stabilizing treatment that prevents a patient’s condition from worsening.
The U.S. Supreme Court issued a procedural ruling in the case last year that left key questions unanswered about whether doctors in abortion ban states can terminate pregnancies when a woman is at risk of serious infection, organ loss or hemorrhage.
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