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 in response to the Trump administration rescinding CMS guidance from July 2022 reaffirming that the Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act (EMTALA), signed into law in 1986, requires providers offer necessary stabilizing care for patients suffering emergency medical conditions, which might include abortion care in certain situations. While this move doesn’t change federal law and the requirements on hospitals to provide life-saving care, it adds further confusion for hospitals already navigating a thicket of state abortion laws and could jeopardize lifesaving care for patients.
“The Trump administration doesn’t want you to know it, but they just quietly erased guidance that informed hospitals of their obligation to provide lifesaving care for pregnant women facing health care emergencies, like severe hemorrhage or sepsis—circumstances where the only option to save a woman’s life may be emergency abortion care.
“Once again, the Trump administration is sending a clear message that they do not care about women’s lives, and they don’t care how many pregnant women they force into health care crises so long as they can continue to advance their extreme anti-abortion agenda.
“Make no mistake: EMTALA is still the law, and Trump rescinding this guidance does not change the fact that pregnant women who need emergency abortion care to save their life or health are still legally entitled to this care.”
Since the overturn of Roe v. Wade almost three years ago, nearly two dozen US states led by Republicans have passed, banned, or severely restricted access to abortion. These strict laws have created confusion around the treatment doctors can provide even when a pregnant patient’s life is in danger, as physicians fear that they may lose their medical license, be sued, or even charged with a felony if they perform life-saving emergency care. Despite the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act’s (EMTALA) requirements that Medicare-participating hospitals treat and stabilize pregnant patients in need of emergency medical care, women are being turned away from emergency rooms following the Dobbs decision.
In September, Senator Murray introduced a resolution expressing the sense of the Senate that every patient has the basic right to emergency health care, including abortion care, regardless of where they live. In March 2024, Senator Murray led 258 Members of Congress in submitting an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in Moyle v. United States and Idaho v. United States—two consolidated cases concerning EMTALA—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.
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. 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; Murray has led efforts to push for passage of these bills on the floor multiple times. Last January, on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Murray led her colleagues in hosting a “State of Abortion Rights” briefing with women who have suffered firsthand from Republican abortion bans, and last June, she chaired a HELP Committee hearing titled “The Assault on Women’s Freedoms: How Abortion Bans Have Created a Health Care Nightmare Across America.” Recently, Murray helped lead efforts to force Republicans on the record on votes to protect access to contraception and access to IVF (twice), and she led her colleagues in raising the alarm about the threat a second Trump administration poses to reproductive rights and abortion access in every state, as outlined in Project 2025.
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