The Trump administration is ending a Biden-era rule stretching federal law to force emergency room doctors to perform abortions.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced earlier this week it is rescinding the Biden administration’s July 2022 guidelines requiring hospitals to perform abortions as emergency treatment under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act.
EMTALA is a 1986 law intended to prevent emergency rooms from refusing to treat patients who could not pay. The previous administration expanded its use to categorize abortion as a “stabilizing treatment” and force doctors to perform them against their will.
“As a board-certified ob-gyn for over 30 years, the administration’s change in stance is welcome news for both of my patients—a pregnant woman and her unborn child—whose lives are both prioritized by EMTALA. This coercive effort by the prior administration to subvert existing laws to promote abortion was never necessary,” said Ingrid Skop, vice president and director of medical affairs at the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute.
The EMTALA guidance was the subject of a Biden Justice Department lawsuit challenging Idaho’s abortion restrictions that the Supreme Court punted back to lower courts last year. The Trump administration under Attorney General Pam Bondi dropped the lawsuit in March, ending the pro-life state’s years-long battle with the federal government.
In its announcement, CMS clarified that it would continue to enforce EMTALA in emergency situations where the health of a pregnant woman or her unborn child is in jeopardy.
“CMS 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,” the agency said.
“CMS will work to rectify any perceived legal confusion and instability created by the former administration’s actions.”
Dr. Mehmet Oz is currently heading the CMS under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Oz previously expressed pro-life views when he ran for Senate as a Republican in Pennsylvania during the 2022 midterms.
“Don’t believe the spin and fearmongering of the fake news. The Biden Administration created confusion, but EMTALA is clear and the law has not changed: women will receive care for miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, and medical emergencies in all fifty states—this has not and will never change in the Trump Administration,” Oz said on X.
Although Kennedy spent most of his life as a pro-abortion Democrat, he has aligned himself with President Trump’s moderate abortion stance and promised to uphold freedom of conscience protections. The Catholic Medical Association filed a lawsuit against the rescinded EMTALA guidelines earlier this year arguing they violate religious freedom laws.
Abortion advocates have repeatedly claimed falsely that pro-life laws prevent pregnant women from seeking care for miscarriages and other medical emergencies related to their pregnancy.
“Led by Dr. Oz, the Trump administration has delivered another win for life and truth – stopping Biden’s attack on emergency care for both pregnant moms and their unborn children, ” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA pro-life America.
“It is a clear fact that pregnant women are protected under pro-life laws. Women can receive care for a miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy and any medical emergency in all 50 states.”