ICYMI: Murray Leads Congressional Democrats in Amicus Brief Urging SCOTUS to Affirm that EMTALA Requires Hospitals to Provide Emergency Stabilizing Care Including Abortion Care, Preempts Idaho’s Draconian Abortion Ban
Senator Murray: “The stakes of this case cannot be understated: Republicans are trying to deny pregnant women whose water breaks dangerously early, or who are experiencing uncontrollable hemorrhage, sepsis, or pre-eclampsia, access to emergency abortion care that would stabilize their health and save their lives. If there was ever a case that underscored how the ‘pro-life’ movement doesn’t care a whit about women’s lives, this is it.”
Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee issued the following statement on oral arguments taking place tomorrow, April 24th before the Supreme Court in Idaho v. United States and Moyle v. United States, two consolidated cases that concern the rights of pregnant individuals to get the emergency medical care they need—which can include abortion care—under a federal law, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), enacted in 1986, that requires hospital emergency rooms to provide treatment for all people that stabilizes their conditions.
After the Dobbs decision in 2022, Idaho enacted a draconian abortion ban that makes it a felony for a doctor to terminate a patient’s pregnancy unless it is “necessary” to prevent the patient’s death. The United States sued the State of Idaho, arguing that the state’s law is preempted by EMTALA in those circumstances in which abortion may not be necessary to prevent imminent death, but still constitutes the necessary stabilizing treatment for a patient’s emergency medical condition. The district court agreed; it held that in those limited, but critically important situations, EMTALA requires Medicare-participating hospitals to provide abortion as an emergency medical treatment. Last month, Senator Murray led 258 Members of Congress in an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to uphold the district court’s ruling, arguing that the congressional intent, text, and history of EMTALA make clear that covered hospitals must provide abortion care when it is the necessary stabilizing treatment for a patient’s emergency medical condition, and that EMTALA preempts Idaho’s abortion ban in emergency situations that present a serious threat to a patient’s health.
“In the two years since Roe v. Wade was overturned thanks to Donald Trump, we have seen again and again how extreme Republican abortion bans put women’s lives in danger—countless stories of pregnant women with serious complications being left to suffer because Republican politicians have tied doctors’ hands. The stakes of this case cannot be understated: Republicans are trying to deny pregnant women whose water breaks dangerously early, or who are experiencing uncontrollable hemorrhage, sepsis, or pre-eclampsia, access to emergency abortion care that would stabilize their health and save their lives. If there was ever a case that underscored how the ‘pro-life’ movement doesn’t care a whit about women’s lives, this is it.
“Republicans and their anti-abortion allies are working overtime to make pregnancy more dangerous and force women to remain pregnant no matter what—and they won’t stop until abortion is outlawed everywhere. President Biden and his administration are fighting every way they can to protect access to essential health care, but ultimately, we need the support in Congress to restore Roe and the right to abortion nationwide—that’s what we’ll keep working towards.”
Senator Murray is a longtime leader in the fight to protect and expand access to reproductive health care and abortion rights, and she has led Congressional efforts to fight back after the Supreme Court’s disastrous decision overturning Roe v. Wade last year. Murray led her colleagues at the very outset of this Congress to make crystal clear that Senate Democrats are continuing to fight to protect every American’s reproductive rights and will be a firewall against Republicans’ continued attacks on women’s rights—and that’s exactly what she’s doing now. Murray has introduced more than a dozen pieces of legislation to protect reproductive rights from further attacks, protect providers, and help ensure women get the care they need; she also co-leads the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would restore the right to abortion nationwide. Ahead of the one-year anniversary of the Dobbs decision, Senator Murray led Senate Democrats in seeking unanimous consent on the Senate floor for four common-sense bills to protect women’s fundamental freedoms, and in January she led her colleagues in hosting a “State of Abortion Rights” briefing with women who have suffered firsthand from Republican abortion bans.
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