Senator Murray: “This decision fails patients and doctors—and leaves an unacceptable level of uncertainty for women and their health care providers. Even with EMTALA still in place for now in Idaho —Republican abortion bans continue to have a dangerous chilling effect. Doctors are still forced to contend with dangerous laws on the books that threaten them with prosecution or jail time, making our health care providers either hesitant or altogether unwilling to provide women lifesaving abortion care in these states.”
Murray led Congressional Democrats in amicus brief urging SCOTUS to affirm that EMTALA requires hospitals to provide emergency stabilizing care, including abortion care
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 on the Supreme Court’s decision in Idaho v. United States and Moyle v. United States, two consolidated cases that concern the rights of pregnant individuals to get the emergency medical care they need—which can include abortion care—under a federal law, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), enacted in 1986, that requires hospital emergency rooms to provide treatment for all people to stabilize their conditions.
After the Dobbs decision in 2022, Idaho enacted a draconian abortion ban that makes it a felony for a doctor to terminate a patient’s pregnancy unless it is “necessary” to prevent the patient’s death. The United States sued the State of Idaho, arguing that the state’s law is preempted by EMTALA in those circumstances in which abortion may not be necessary to prevent imminent death, but still constitutes the necessary stabilizing treatment for a patient’s emergency medical condition. The district court agreed; it held that in those limited, but critically important situations, EMTALA requires Medicare-participating hospitals to provide abortion as an emergency medical treatment.
Today, the Supreme Court dismissed the cases but without a ruling on the merits, sending the case back to the 9th Circuit Court and reinstating the district court’s injunction.
“Women in America deserve nothing less than an outright rejection, on the merits, of the very idea that their doctors cannot provide lifesaving abortion care. This decision fails patients and doctors—and leaves an unacceptable level of uncertainty for women and their health care providers.
“Even with EMTALA still in place for now in Idaho —Republican abortion bans continue to have a dangerous chilling effect. Doctors are still forced to contend with dangerous laws on the books that threaten them with prosecution or jail time, making our health care providers either hesitant or altogether unwilling to provide women lifesaving abortion care in these states.
“We are talking about women whose water breaks dangerously early, or who are experiencing uncontrollable hemorrhage, sepsis, or pre-eclampsia—these are the women Republicans don’t think deserve access to emergency care. And so, even with today’s ruling that leaves so much in question, pregnant women whose health is in danger are still being denied necessary medical care every day in America, including just across the border from my home state.
“And let’s be clear, providing emergency stabilizing care under EMTALA is the bare minimum to keep a patient alive—these women may have undergone tremendous trauma and suffering up until they meet the threshold for emergency stabilizing care. Women shouldn’t have to lose organ function or their ability to have children jeopardized just to receive basic medical care.
“Republicans and Donald Trump won’t stop until abortion is outlawed everywhere, until abortion care is impossible to obtain no matter a woman’s circumstance, and until pregnant women have fewer rights than an embryo—this is their vision for America. President Biden and his administration will keep fighting every way they can to protect access to essential health care, but we need the support in Congress to restore the right to abortion nationwide—that’s what we’ll keep fighting to do.”
In March, Senator Murray led 258 Members of Congress in an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to uphold the district court’s ruling, 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, and that EMTALA preempts Idaho’s abortion ban in emergency situations that present a serious threat to a patient’s health. In April, Senator Murray issued a statement emphasized the stakes of this case in a statement ahead of oral arguments before the Supreme Court. Murray also applauded the launch of a new tool from the Biden Administration to make it easier for women to report potential EMTALA violations.
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 last year. Murray led her colleagues at the outset of this Congress to make crystal clear that Senate Democrats are continuing to fight to protect every American’s reproductive rights and will be a firewall against Republicans’ continued attacks on women’s rights—and that’s exactly what she’s doing now. 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; she also co-leads the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would restore the right to abortion nationwide. Ahead of the one-year anniversary of the Dobbs decision, Senator Murray led Senate Democrats in seeking unanimous consent on the Senate floor for four common-sense bills to protect women’s fundamental freedoms, and in January she led her colleagues in hosting a “State of Abortion Rights” briefing with women who have suffered firsthand from Republican abortion bans. On June 4th, Senator Murray 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 also helped lead efforts to force Republicans on the record on votes to protect access to contraception and access to IVF—Senate Republicans blocked consideration of both bills, showing once again how extreme and out-of-step they are with the American people. In advance of the Dobbs anniversary, Murray, Schumer, and other Senate Democratic women introduced a bill expressing support for reproductive rights and challenging Republicans to at least support the idea that women should be able to access basic reproductive health care.
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