Latest news with #DoctorsforAmerica
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
Axios
05-03-2025
- Health
- Axios
Judge orders federal health websites restored
A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to restore scores of health agency webpages and datasets that went dark to comply with executive orders on diversity, equity and inclusion and gender identity. The big picture: District Court Judge John Bates granted a request from Doctors for America for a temporary restraining order, saying the physicians' group showed "substantial likelihood of success" on its claims that Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration acted arbitrarily and capriciously in removing the webpages. The group said the removed content helps guide practitioners, is essential to public health research and is key to preventing disease outbreaks. Catch up quick: Thousands of webpages containing federal health guidelines and data went dark late last month. Some soon reappeared without clarity on what had been changed or removed — and with disclaimers noting that the pages could be further modified. Among the affected sites was CDC's website for the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which hosts vaccine recommendations for kids and adults. Websites tracking issues including HIV prevention and transgender care were also taken down. The CDC said that all changes to HHS websites were in accordance with executive orders calling for an end to federal diversity, equity and inclusion programs and declaring the government will only recognize two sexes, male and female.
Yahoo
12-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Musk calls for ‘wave of judicial impeachments'
Tech billionaire Elon Musk on Wednesday called for judges to be impeached for checking the power of the Trump administration, as some of its efforts to overhaul the government get bogged down in legal fights. 'There needs to be an immediate wave of judicial impeachments, not just one,' Musk said on the social platform X, responding to claim of a conflict of interest for U.S. District Judge John Bates, who ordered federal health agencies Tuesday to restore online datasets taken down. Neither Musk nor the other X user he responded to gave evidence into the claim. Bates order followed Trump's executive order prohibiting the government from promoting 'gender ideology.' The judge agreed to issue the temporary order in favor of Doctors for America (DFA), a left-leaning physicians advocacy group that sued by claiming the scrubbing violated federal law. Musk has also called for another federal judge to be impeached after they issued a ruling that temporarily halted his Department of Government Efficiency's (DOGE) access to Treasury Department data. Trump has said he will abide by court orders that block parts of his agenda, but on Wednesday morning questioned recent rulings halting his administration's work. 'DOGE has found massive amounts of FRAUD, WASTE, INCOMPETENCE, AND ABUSE, but even knowing this, a highly political, activist Judge wants us to immediately make payment, anyway. In other words pay, even though you know the payment was fraudulently requested to be made. DOGE caught them – The Judge just doesn't care. It doesn't make sense!!!' the president said on Truth Social. The day before, Trump had Musk in the Oval Office with him, in a striking moment to defend his ally amid concerns about the legality of DOGE's actions and about the tech titan's personal conflicts of interest, given his companies' vast government contracts. Musk and Vice President Vance have both in recent days suggested judges don't have jurisdiction to stop the president from exercising his authority, leading Democrats and some legal experts to sound the alarm over a looming constitutional crisis. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
12-02-2025
- Business
- The Hill
Musk calls for ‘wave of judicial impeachments'
Tech billionaire Elon Musk on Wednesday called for judges to be impeached for checking the power of the Trump administration, as some of its efforts to overhaul the government get bogged down in legal fights. 'There needs to be an immediate wave of judicial impeachments, not just one,' Musk said on X, responding to claim of a conflict of interest for U.S. District Judge John Bates, who ordered federal health agencies Tuesday to restore online datasets taken down. Neither Musk or the other X user he responded to gave evidence into the claim. Bates order followed Trump's executive order prohibiting the government from promoting 'gender ideology.' The judge agreed to issue the temporary order in favor of Doctors for America (DFA), a left-leaning physicians advocacy group that sued by claiming the scrubbing violated federal law. Musk has also called for another federal judge to be impeached after they issued a ruling that temporarily halted his Department of Government Efficiency's (DOGE) access to Treasury Department data. Trump has said he will abide by court orders that block parts of his agenda, but on Wednesday morning questioned recent rulings halting his administration's work. 'DOGE has found massive amounts of FRAUD, WASTE, INCOMPETENCE, AND ABUSE, but even knowing this, a highly political, activist Judge wants us to immediately make payment, anyway. In other words pay, even though you know the payment was fraudulently requested to be made. DOGE caught them – The Judge just doesn't care. It doesn't make sense!!!' the president said on Truth Social. The day before, Trump had Musk in the Oval Office with him, in a striking moment to defend his ally amid concerns about the legality of DOGE's actions and about the tech titan's personal conflicts of interest, given his companies' vast government contracts. Musk and Vice President Vance have both in recent days suggested judges don't have jurisdiction to stop the president from exercising his authority, leading Democrats and some legal experts to sound the alarm over a looming constitutional crisis.
The Hill
11-02-2025
- Health
- The Hill
Judge tells health agencies to restore website data
U.S. District Judge John Bates issued a temporary restraining order on behalf of Doctors for America, a left-leaning physicians advocacy group, which recently sued a handful of federal agencies for scrubbing their websites of data they regularly use. The physicians group argued the removal of the once publicly available data made it harder for them to treat patients and violated federal law. After Trump signed executive orders aimed at 'gender ideology' and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts, federal health agencies began to scrub their websites to comply with the orders. Several health agencies including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention went almost completely dark as a result. Some of that data has been restored already, like CDC resources for tracking and preventing HIV. But most of what has been removed is still missing, including recommendations for treating sexually transmitted infections and guidelines on prescribing contraception. Judge Bates, a George W. Bush appointee, concluded that the removal of data likely violated a provision requiring federal agencies to provide 'adequate notice or reasoned explanation.' 'This opinion has documented the harm DFA members have suffered and will continue to suffer absent intervention, but the harm extends beyond them,' Bates wrote in his ruling, referring to members of the advocacy group. 'DFA has also supplied declarations from doctors around the country who, although not DFA members themselves, are representative of the widespread disruption that defendants' abrupt removal of these critical healthcare materials has caused,' he continued. Health care workers routinely use such guidelines to determine how best to treat patients, making their removal harmful to doctors and the people they care for, according to Zachary Shelley, an attorney representing the physicians group. 'You can't put the toothpaste back in the tube that has already come out,' Shelley said. 'You can stop it from flowing out going forward. Every day that this goes on, there's harm to the doctors and their patients and public health.'
