By Ben Whedon
The Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday informed hospital and doctor associations that they must perform emergency abortions to save a woman’s health.
“No pregnant woman or her family should have to even begin to worry that she could be denied the treatment she needs to stabilize her emergency medical condition in the emergency room,” reads a letter from HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Director Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, according to the Associated Press.
“And yet, we have heard story after story describing the experiences of pregnant women presenting to hospital emergency departments with emergency medical conditions and being turned away because medical providers were uncertain about what treatment they were permitted to provide,” it continued.
The letter comes in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 6-3 opinion permitting emergency abortions to continue in Idaho. The court initially posted its ruling prematurely last Wednesday, but ultimately published the decision one day later. At issue is the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act requiring emergency rooms that receive Medicare to provide stabilizing treatment for patients in emergency situations.
Idaho was one of several states to enact a so-called “trigger ban” on abortion upon the overturn on the Roe v. Wade precedent in 2022. The ban affects nearly all abortions, but makes exceptions for rape, incest, and threats to the life, but not the health, of the mother.
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Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.
Photo “Emergency Room” by National Cancer Institute.
