Trump Puts Lives at Risk by Revoking Emergency Abortion Guidelines for Hospitals

The Trump administration rescinded Biden-era guidance that explicitly required crisis rooms to provide abortions to pregnant patients if such care would save their lives Therapeutic experts expect the approach shift to sow chaos in hospitals and endanger pregnant people throughout the U S In the aftermath of the Supreme Court s move to overturn Roe v Wade the Biden administration issued guidance related to the Exigency Anatomical Restoration and Current Labor Act or EMTALA a federal law that requires soundness care providers that take Medicare to provide stabilizing physiological healing to all patients experiencing biological emergencies In a letter to vitality care providers Physical condition and Human Services Secretary Xavier Beccerra wrote that if a medical practitioner believes a pregnant individual at an emergency room is experiencing an exigency healthcare condition as defined by EMTALA and that abortion is the stabilizing healing necessary to resolve that condition the physician must provide that cure The memo also clarified that EMTALA preempts state law in cases where abortion is illegal with exceptions narrower than those in EMTALA In a press release Tuesday the Trump administration rescinded the older guidance stating that the previous rules do not reflect the framework of this Administration The release noted that Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will work to rectify any perceived legal confusion and instability created by the former administration s actions In places where doctors and hospitals are being threatened with both criminal and civil penalties for providing abortion care it will cause a delay Abortion providers and experts in reproductive wellbeing argue that the vagueness of the new guidance will create uncertainty in crisis rooms denying pregnant people equal access to care and putting lives at liability in states that have restricted or banned abortion The Trump Administration would rather women die in crisis rooms than receive life-saving abortions disclosed Nancy Northup President and CEO at the Center for Reproductive Rights In pulling back guidance this administration is feeding the fear and confusion that already exists at hospitals in every state where abortion is banned Hospitals need more guidance right now not less The Trump administration advised The Intercept that the idea that the new guidance puts lives at liability is false CMS will continue to enforce EMTALA which protects all individuals who present to a hospital crisis department seeking examination or medicine including for identified urgency diagnostic conditions that place the healthcare of a pregnant woman or her unborn child in serious jeopardy Department of Soundness and Human Services spokesperson Andrew Nixon wrote in a report to The Intercept Even before the Trump administration rescinded the Biden-era guidance dozens of pregnant women revealed being turned away for crisis health care since the fall of Roe A ProPublica overview detected that at least five women have died as a upshot of abortion bans since Roe v Wade was overturned The greater part reproductive strength care experts believe the number is far higher than what s been shared Related Drug-Sniffing Police Dogs Are Intercepting Abortion Pills in the Mail We already know that women have died because physicians didn t act because of fear surrounding what they or couldn t do under certain state bans noted Dana Sussman senior vice president at Pregnancy Justice a non-profit reproductive justice organization We know that women have died because they have been scared to get care because they self managed abortions We know that more women will die and we and there are perhaps women who have died and we will never know their names Sussman disclosed that the new guidance will only make it harder for hospitals to feel relaxed providing lifesaving care to pregnant people I think inevitably it will create a large number of more challenges when it comes to what hospitals are advising their physicians what physicians feel peaceful doing in different states and and I do think that it s putting more lives she disclosed Last year the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a incident brought by the Biden Administration challenging Idaho s abortion ban on the grounds that it violated EMTALA by prohibiting abortion care in too multiple circumstances The court ultimately punted refusing to add clarity but allowing urgency abortions to go forward in the state The Trump Department of Justice declined to continue prosecuting the Idaho occurrence an early signal that it planned to rescind the Biden guidance Jamilla Perritt an OB-GYN and abortion provider in Washington who is also president of the nonprofit Physicians for Reproductive Strength mentioned it s essential to clarify that EMTALA still stands even if the administration has tried to muddy the waters This does not change providers legal obligation to provide life saving care for people when they analysis to crisis rooms Perritt explained The other thing is that it does not change their moral and ethical obligation to do so The confusion caused by this announcement however will carry risks argued Perritt In places where doctors and hospitals are being threatened with both criminal and civil penalties for providing abortion care she declared It will cause a delay It will give them pause It s striking Perrit stated to see such initiative come from an administration that has been masquerading as supportive of families The federal ruling body gets to decide who lives and who dies during pregnancy complications during emergency events she explained The hypocrisy is really glaring because this is the exact same governing body that s claiming to advocacy children and families that want people to have more babies but instead it is dismantling the system that protects the lives of pregnant people and their families The post Trump Puts Lives at Peril by Revoking Crisis Abortion Guidelines for Hospitals appeared first on The Intercept