July 3, 2024
Even if you don’t want to, even if your state law says you can’t, the Biden administration is reminding hospitals and providers across the country – for now – the supreme court says you must provide emergency abortion care.
The Department of Health and Human Services sent a lengthy letter to all hospitals and provider associations across the country yesterday making sure they all know they are legally responsible for offering necessary stabilizing medical treatment or transfer for all patients who show up at a hospital with an emergency medical condition. And that emergency medical care may include abortion care. This goes for all hospitals that receive Medicare funding from the federal government – which is like all of them.
The letter reads, “when a state law prohibits abortion and does not include an exception for the life and health of the pregnant individual — or draws the exception more narrowly than EMTALA’s emergency medical condition definition — that state law is preempted.“
So I know you’re probably thinking – how can the federal government do that if the state law bans abortion. Well – two things. One — there’s a federal law that’s been around for 40 years called the emergency medical treatment and active labor act -or EMTALA – and two — last week – the Supreme Court ruled for now – this abortion regulation under EMTALA can continue while a lawsuit against it continues to play out in a lower court in Idaho. I actually told you all about that supreme court ruling in this video last week.
And here’s the thing – if you live in Idaho or any other state with abortion restrictions or bans and you’re turned away from a hospital and denied emergency abortion care – there is a brand new complaint process and an easy online form for you to fill out and that complaint goes straight to the federal government. I actually did a whole video about that new complaint form in this video a few weeks ago. And by the way that complaint form isn’t just for a hospital failing to provide you emergency abortion care it’s for any type emergency medical care.
The letter sent yesterday – also reminds these hospitals and providers that the Biden administration is looking veeeeeeeery closely at these complaints and has no problem issuing a notice of deficiency to the hospital for violation of emtala. And if the hospital doesn’t immediately come into compliance the feds will pull their federal funding.
Read the letter from HHS here.
Read more about your rights to complain here.
