Trump administration revokes guidance requiring hospitals to provide emergency abortions

[IwantToRetire]

The Trump administration announced on Tuesday that it would revoke guidance to the nation's hospitals that directed them to provide emergency abortions to women when they are necessary to stabilize their medical condition.

That guidance was issued to hospitals in 2022, weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court upended national abortion rights in the U.S. It was an effort by the Biden administration to preserve abortion access for extreme cases in which women were experiencing medical emergencies and needed an abortion to prevent organ loss or severe hemorrhaging, among other serious complications.

An Associated Press investigation last year found that, even with that guidance, dozens of pregnant women were being turned away from emergency rooms, including some who needed emergency abortions.

Biden argued that hospitals — including states with near-total bans — needed to provide emergency abortions under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. That law requires emergency rooms that receive Medicare dollars to provide an exam and stabilizing treatment for all patients. Nearly all emergency rooms in the U.S. rely on Medicare funds.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which investigates hospitals that are not in compliance, said in a statement on Tuesday that it was rescinding the Biden-era guidance. The agency, however, will continue to enforce the law, “including for identified emergency medical conditions that place the health of a pregnant woman or her unborn child in serious jeopardy.”

But CMS added that it would also “rectify any perceived legal confusion and instability created by the former administration's actions.”

article in full at https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/trump-administration-revokes-guidance-requiring-hospitals-to-provide-emergency-abortions/ar-AA1G1t8Q?ocid=weather-verthp-feeds

Remake of the Romanian dictator Ceusescu.

I just told DH about this. He said “I don’t understand. That’s just cruelty. Why would someone do that?” I told him he doesn’t understand because he’s a decent human being. We both agree this is on the same slippery slope which leads you to the Taliban and the desperate plight of Afghan women. If you fail to see women as full humans with equal rights, this dehumanising, monstrous crap is allowed to slide.

This makes me feel sick.

I dont know which is worse that Trump really believes this, or he is just doing it to ingratiate himself with fundamentalist Christians. (funny that I automatically put a capital C when in fact I have no respect for them.)

But either way, it is a strange and unpleasant irony that after all the ranting and raging in the US about fundamentalist Muslims, that the US is in fact following how they govern.

Same thing happened in Poland. In a few short years the birthrate dropped from an already low 1.4 to 1.1. And it will go lower.

Women are will not put themselves at risk of death.

This is what happens when you put your ideology over practicality.

These men speak out of both sides of their mouth. No immigration! More babies! but then do everything to make childbirth a completely unacceptable option in a modern society, and make child raising as finanically difficult as possible.

I've typed out about 5 responses since reading this thread. None of them capture the full depth of what I think or how I feel about this. I'm lost for words.

'The agency, however, will continue to enforce the law, “including for identified emergency medical conditions that place the health of a pregnant woman or her unborn child in serious jeopardy.”'

What law does this mean?

Seriously fucked up.

@ArabellaScott the law on abortion varies from state to state. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/us/abortion-laws-roe-v-wade.html

edited for more up to date position

So does this mean for example a woman presenting with an ectopic pregnancy wouldn’t be treated in an emergency if it ruptured ?

Blessed be the fruit

Yup

That is horrendous. Aside from the whole thing being wrong they are exhibiting a whole new level of stupidity over things like ectopic pregnancies/ missed miscarriage etc ? They have no basic understanding of biology if they can’t see how emergency abortion care is vital ? It’s shocking.

I still don't fully understand what's going on here.

It seems the Biden introduced law wasn't working in all cases?

https://apnews.com/article/abortion-emtala-biden-trump-emergency-hospital-3640bff165dac1d28b91e8adee7e47dd

'An Associated Press investigation last year found that, even with the Biden administration’s guidance, dozens of pregnant women were being turned away from emergency rooms, including some who needed emergency abortions.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which provides oversight of hospitals, said in a statement that it will continue to enforce the federal law that, “including for identified emergency medical conditions that place the health of a pregnant woman or her unborn child in serious jeopardy.”
But CMS added that it would also “rectify any perceived legal confusion and instability created by the former administration’s actions.”
The Biden administration sued Idaho over its abortion law that initially only allowed abortions to save the life of the mother. The federal government had argued before the U.S. Supreme Court last year that Idaho’s law was in conflict with the federal law, which requires stabilizing treatment that prevents a patient’s condition from worsening.
The U.S. Supreme Court issued a procedural ruling in the case last year that left key questions unanswered about whether doctors in abortion-ban states can terminate pregnancies when a woman is at risk of serious infection, organ loss or hemorrhage.'

Well if you are in Texas, where any fanatic can sue you, I guess you didn't, and dont, abort anyone for anything. But if you are in some of the other states you would.

It sucks to be a pregnant American woman in some states.

This is awful. And it doesn’t just affect American women - what happens when a female tourist, who perhaps didn't even know she was pregnant, suffers complications but is denied a life-saving abortion?

It’s all too Handmaids Tale.

Tourists have more chance of leaving. Still wouldnt suggest anyone who is knowingly pregnant going anywhere near some states.

May the fucking Lord open

The Trump Administration’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said in a press release that it “will 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.” But the agency also said that it “will work to rectify any perceived legal confusion and instability created by the former administration’s actions.”

Doctors and abortion-rights advocates, however, said they feared that the Administration’s move will amplify confusion over whether doctors can provide critical care, thereby putting lives at risk.

https://time.com/7291156/trump-emergency-abortion-guidance/

Tracking Abortion Laws Across the USA

More detail in article at https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/us/abortion-laws-roe-v-wade.html including the states shaded grey where abortion is legal but with different number of weeks as the limit.

They might, but not if you’ve been rushed to hospital with an ectopic pregnancy or miscarriage.