Latest news with #CatholicMedicalAssociation
Yahoo
6 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Trump Admin Sends 'Ominous Signal' On Emergency Abortion Care Guidelines
President Donald Trump's administration on Tuesday rescinded a Biden-era guideline around emergency abortion care. The move has no direct legal impacts on care, but it sends a clear message on where the Trump administration stands on abortion access. Abortion advocates also tell HuffPost that the guideline repeal will create more confusion for physicians on the ground, and lead to more delays and denials of care. The Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services rescinded the 2022 guidance around the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, also known as EMTALA. EMTALA requires hospitals that participate in Medicare — the majority of hospitals in the country — to offer abortion care if it's necessary to stabilize the health of a pregnant patient while they're experiencing a medical emergency. The guidance was published by the Biden administration after the Supreme Court repealed federal abortion protections as a reminder to physicians that EMTALA, a federal law, supersedes any state abortion ban. 'As frontline health care providers, the federal EMTALA statute protects your clinical judgment and the action that you take to provide stabilizing medical treatment to your pregnant patients, regardless of the restrictions in the state where you practice,' then-HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra wrote. Trump's CMS stated that the previous guidance and accompanying letter 'do not reflect the policy of this Administration.' 'The obligation to provide emergency abortion care comes from EMTALA itself, a federal statute written by Congress,' Alexa Kolbi-Molinas, deputy director of the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, told HuffPost. 'The Trump administration does not have the power to simply erase that with the stroke of a pen.' 'But it absolutely sends an ominous signal about what this administration is going to attempt to do after promising not to interfere with emergency abortions,' she said. The announcement came the same day anti-abortion group Catholic Medical Association announced it was dismissing its case, Catholic Medical Association v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and challenging the guidance. Although the guidance simply underlined current federal law, rescinding it will throw physicians into legal chaos. 'The Trump administration doesn't want you to know it, but they just quietly erased guidance that informed hospitals of their obligation to provide lifesaving care for pregnant women facing health care emergencies, like severe hemorrhage or sepsis – circumstances where the only option to save a woman's life may be emergency abortion care,' Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said in a Tuesday statement. 'Once again, the Trump administration is sending a clear message that they do not care about women's lives, and they don't care how many pregnant women they force into health care crises so long as they can continue to advance their extreme anti-abortion agenda.' There have been many reports of pregnant women across the country — in Texas, Florida, Oklahoma and elsewhere— who were denied emergency abortion care because they weren't close enough to death. The decision to revoke these guidelines will create further confusion for emergency care providers who are simply trying to do their jobs. The Supreme Court rejected an attack on emergency abortion care in Idaho last summer, but pro-choice groups cautioned against calling it a win. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote that the decision was 'not a victory for pregnant patients in Idaho' but instead 'it is delay.' 'Complying with this law can mean the difference between life and death for pregnant people, forcing providers like me to choose between caring for someone in their time of need and turning my back on them to comply with cruel and dangerous laws,' Dr. Jamila Perritt, OB-GYN, abortion provider and president of Physicians for Reproductive Health, said in a statement. 'As a doctor, I have a moral and ethical obligation to provide emergency care to those in need, including EMTALA's mandate to provide abortion care when it is necessary and stabilizing treatment,' Perritt added. 'This action does not change that.' Biden Administration Clarifies Protections For Doctors Making Emergency Abortion Decisions Conservative SCOTUS Justices Somehow Ignore Pregnant Patients In Heated Abortion Arguments Supreme Court Allows Emergency Abortion Care In Idaho For Now Opinion: I'm An Emergency Physician. Here's How Dangerous This Supreme Court Abortion Ruling Could Be.
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
National medical org asks to join Tennessee lawsuit to advocate for abortion access
Doctors for America is trying to join a Tennessee lawsuit to ensure women can get abortions when their lives or health depend on the procedure. The organization is a national collection of more than 30,000 medical professionals that advocates for policies that expand access to affordable health care. Doctors for America on May 30 asked to intervene in a lawsuit brought by a different health care group, the Catholic Medical Association, which opposes abortion access. Catholic Medical Association sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Jan. 10 looking to overturn a 2022 directive that federal law requires hospitals provide abortions if doing so is necessary to stabilize a medical crisis. 'Doctors should not be forced to choose between following the law and saving a patient's life,' Dr. Christine Petrin, president of Doctors for America, said in a news release. Doctors for America is represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Tennessee, the National Women's Law Center and Democracy Forward. Doctors for America explained in its May 30 filing it is intervening now because of the change in presidential administrations. "DFA cannot rely on the federal government to adequately defend (its) interests," the court filing states. More: What are abortion laws in Tennessee and where is the procedure legal? The law at question here is the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, a 1986 federal law often referred to as EMTALA. The law ensures the public can access emergency health care even if they cannot pay. In the wake of the overturning of Roe V. Wade in 2022, during President Joe Biden's administration, HHS issued guidance that EMTALA requires that emergency rooms that accept Medicaid provide abortions when they are medically necessary, even if doing so violates a state law prohibiting abortion. That guidance was challenged in court and appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the justices declined to give a ruling on it. It seems likely the current iteration of the HHS under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will reverse the previous administration's position. In a filing in this lawsuit in April, it wrote, "New leadership at the Department of Health and Human Services is actively considering how best to respond to the Complaint ... including to evaluate whether it may be possible to resolve this case without litigation" — meaning the Catholic Medical Association may get what it wants through a policy change. The Catholic Medical Association has argued that the 2022 guidance ensuring access to medically necessary abortion care runs afoul of the Supreme Court precedent set in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the case that overturned Roe v. Wade and ruled there is not a constitutional right to abortion. The Catholic organization said it is urging the court to "allow doctors to perform their life-giving duties without fear of government officials forcing them to violate their beliefs.' More: Federal judge temporarily blocks part of TN's abortion travel ban on free speech grounds While most, if not all, state laws allow for abortions to be performed in very limited circumstances, Carrie Flaxman, senior legal advisor at Democracy Forward, said revoking EMTALA's guidance on abortion will "sow confusion for providers." 'Pregnant people have suffered needlessly, and some have died, because of the chaos and confusion that abortion bans have caused for patients and their doctors,' Flaxman said. Have questions about the justice system? Evan Mealins is the justice reporter for The Tennessean. Contact him with questions, tips or story ideas at emealins@ This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Medical org asks to join TN lawsuit to advocate for abortion access
