The Biden administration told emergency room doctors they must perform emergency abortions when necessary to save a pregnant woman’s health, following last week's Supreme Court ruling that failed to settle a legal dispute over whether state abortion bans override a federal law requiring hospitals to provide stabilizing treatment.
It continued, “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.” The letter is the Biden administration's latest attempt to raise awareness about a 40-year-old federal law that requires almost all emergency rooms — any that receive Medicare dollars — to provide stabilizing treatment for patients in a medical emergency. When hospitals turn away patients or refuse to provide that care, they are subject to federal investigations, hefty fines and loss of Medicare funding.
The emergency room is the last place that the Democratic White House has argued it can federally require rare emergency abortions to be performed, despite strict state abortion bans. After Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, and U.S. women lost the constitutional right to an abortion, HHS quickly sent letters to doctors, saying that they were required to provide abortions in emergency medical situations when they were needed to keep a woman medically stable.
In Idaho, enforcement of the federal law in emergency abortion cases had been on hold since January, when the state's strict abortion ban took effect. Idaho's state law threatens doctors with prison sentences if they perform an abortion, with an exception only if a pregnant woman's life, not her health, is at risk.
Texas is also suing the Biden administration over its guidance around the law. The Department of Justice has appealed a lower court ruling that said the law could be enforced to the Supreme Court, which could decide on taking up the case later this year.