The administration rescinded Biden-era guidance requiring hospitals to provide emergency abortions regardless of state law
The Trump administration has moved to revoke Biden-era federal guidelines that require hospitals to provide emergency abortions to women, regardless of state law. It’s a stark reminder that amid the chaos of President Donald Trump’s first few months back in office, the MAGA movement remains committed to denying women life-saving medical treatment, and their right to bodily autonomy.
The guidance — which Biden issued in 2022 in the aftermath of the Supreme Court overturning of Roe v. Wade — was essentially a reminder to hospitals that under the 1986 Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), emergency rooms that accept Medicare funding (nearly every emergency room in the country) are required to provide an exam and stabilizing care to any patient that walks through its door. The Biden administration argued that the law covered emergency abortions, should they be necessary to the health of a pregnant patient.
On Tuesday night, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a statement rescinding the directive. The agency claimed it would “continue to enforce EMTALA, which protects all individuals who present to a hospital emergency department seeking examination or treatment, including for identified emergency medical conditions that place the health of a pregnant woman or her unborn child in serious jeopardy.”
“CMS will work to rectify any perceived legal confusion and instability created by the former administration’s actions,” the statement added.
The decision is not the only challenge to the Biden administration’s interpretation of EMTALA in recent years. Last year, the Supreme Court allowed Texas to begin enforcing a ban on virtually all abortions in the state — including emergency room abortions — in defiance of the previous administration’s EMTALA guidelines.
In a separate 2024 case brought by Idaho’s House speaker against the Biden administration, the Supreme Court ruled that hospitals in Idaho could provide emergency abortions while lower courts continued to debate the larger questions of EMTALA’s jurisdiction. Now that Biden’s guidance has been rolled back, other states could begin restricting doctors in emergency rooms from providing life-saving obstetrics treatment to patients.
“If there was ever any doubt about where the Trump administration stands on abortion, it should be clear now: even in cases of life or death, they want to block your ability to get an abortion,” Planned Parenthood Federation of America President Alexis McGill Johnson wrote in a Tuesday statement. “Every day, this administration strikes another blow at our most fundamental right: to make our own decisions about our bodies and our futures. Women have died because they couldn’t get the lifesaving abortion care they needed. The Trump administration is willing to let pregnant people die, and that is exactly what we can expect.”
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
