The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service (CMS) has issued a policy memo repealing a Biden-era CMS memorandum and a letter from Biden HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra to U.S. health care providers which claimed that the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) may preempt pro-life state laws and mandate that abortions be provided.
The policy memo titled, “Rescinded Reinforcement of EMTALA Obligations specific to Patients who are Pregnant or are Experiencing Pregnancy Loss,” was released May 30.
EMTALA requires hospitals to provide care for patients with emergency medical conditions regardless of their ability to pay.
An “emergency medical condition” as defined in EMTALA distinctly recognizes that when a pregnant woman presents in a hospital emergency room, there are two patients, and it requires hospitals to provide appropriate care to both.
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While the false narrative that pro-life laws prevent women from receiving emergency medical care was rampant under the Biden administration, the reality is that every pro-life state law regulating abortion contains exceptions to save the life of the mother.
The head of the largest network of pregnancy help organizations in the U.S. expressed gratitude for May 30 policy memo rescinding the Biden administration “guidance” seeking to force emergency room doctors to provide abortion.
“We're grateful to the CMS for putting to rest the sham perpetrated by the Biden Administration,” Heartbeat International President Jor-El Godsey said. “Our government should be more focused on the spirit of EMTALA, helping support pregnancy, and offering true healthcare. Abortion fails on both counts.”
Tweet This: Government should focused on the spirit of EMTALA-helping support pregnancy & offering true healthcare. Abortion fails on both counts.
“Biden's attempt to twist well-meaning legislation for the profits of Big Abortion was simply disgusting,” Godsey said.
Tweet This: Biden's attempt to twist well-meaning legislation for the profits of Big Abortion was simply disgusting
President Reagan signed into law the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act in 1986. Experts have noted that EMTALA does not require doctors to provide abortion.
The Biden Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services had issued its memorandum and the Becerra letter to health care providers claiming that EMTALA may preempt pro-life state laws and require they provide abortion in July 2022.
Later that month the State of Texas filed a lawsuit “challenging the Biden Administration’s attempt to use federal law, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, to force emergency room doctors to perform abortions, even if doing so violates their conscience or religious beliefs.” The American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians & Gynecologists (AAPLOG) and Christian Medical & Dental Associations (CMDA) joined the case as co-plaintiffs in July 2022 as well.
The Biden Department of Justice announced that it was suing the State of Idaho over Idaho’s 2020 Defense of Life Act, which makes providing abortion a crime though holding harmless the pregnant woman and providing “an affirmative defense” for those who show that the abortion was necessary to protect the life of the mother. The Biden administration claimed inaccurately that Idaho’s law conflicted with EMTALA.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Texas in July 2024, finding that, “EMTALA does not mandate medical treatments, let alone abortion care, nor does it preempt Texas law.”
The Supreme Court dismissed the State of Idaho v. United States as improvidently granted; the decision did not rule on the merits of the case, returning the case to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals for reevaluation.
The U.S. Supreme Court denied the Biden administration request to hear State of Texas v. Becerra, leaving the Fifth Circuit decision in place.
In March of this year, Attorney General Pam Bondi dismissed the Biden DOJ’s attack on Idaho’s Defense of Life Act.
Editor's note: Heartbeat International manages Pregnancy Help News.
