Reproductive Equity Now Statement in Advance of Oral Arguments in Case Challenging EMTALA
Meanwhile, the Connecticut legislature is considering a bill to protect providers’ right to refer patients for abortion, provide information about abortion care
HARTFORD (April 23, 2024) – Tomorrow, the United States Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the cases of Idaho v. United States & Moyle v. United States, two consolidated cases challenging provisions in the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), a nearly 40-year-old federal law that requires Medicare-funded hospital emergency departments to provide emergency care to save the life or health of a patient. Idaho is arguing that its state abortion ban, which went into effect after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, supersedes EMTALA and would prohibit Idaho's emergency room doctors from offering life-saving or stabilizing abortion care in the case of an emergency. Idaho’s abortion ban contains only narrow exceptions and makes it a felony for physicians to provide abortions except to save the life (but not the health) of the pregnant person.
As the Supreme Court hears a case that would prevent doctors from doing their job to provide emergency medical care in banned states, Reproductive Equity Now is advocating for legislation in Connecticut that would protect providers from being discharged, demoted, suspended, disciplined, or otherwise discriminated against for providing health information, referrals, or counseling to a patient for care that stands in opposition to their health care institution’s moral or conscientious objections.
“This attempt to usurp EMTALA and put pregnant patients’ lives at risk is simply cruel and inhumane. Abortion and emergency labor care are life-saving, life-affirming forms of health care,” said Liz Gustafson, Connecticut State Director of Reproductive Equity Now. “Attempts to undercut EMTALA put doctors right in the path of criminalization by removing their ability to use their best medical judgment when caring for their patients. Removing the protections of EMTALA will lead to more pregnant people dying. It’s that simple.
“We have to trust and empower physicians to provide the best standard of medical care to their patients, especially in situations where lives are at risk,” Gustafson continued. “When an abortion case was before the Supreme Court in 2022, the Connecticut legislature took swift and decisive action to protect providers offering this life-saving care. Now, it is time for the legislature to once again take action to protect providers from discipline or discrimination for offering information or referrals for reproductive health care in the state. We urge the legislature to urgently take up and pass H.B. 5424 to ensure doctors are able to do their jobs and patients are able to receive the health care they need.”
Since the overturn of Roe v. Wade, one in three American women live in states with no abortion access. In states with strict abortion bans, pregnant people are already being turned away from receiving emergency care when they are experiencing medical duress related to pregnancy. The Biden Administration affirmed in 2022 that EMTALA protects physicians and health institutions from prosecution when providing labor and abortion care to patients experiencing medical complications. This guidance extends to both situations where the continued life of the pregnant patient is at risk and situations where the continued health of the pregnant patient is at risk. Physicians retain the right of refusal even under EMTALA.
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