Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee criticized the partisan point-scoring nature of a rare hearing on abortion complications following the overturning of Roe v. Wade
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), Finance Committee chairman, announced the hearing on abortion, a topic not usually discussed by the committee, following the news of the preventable death of Amber Thurman from abortion pill complications in August 2022, the first recorded abortion-related death after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision.
The title of the hearing, “Chaos and Control: How Trump Criminalized Women’s Health Care,” drew ire from committee Republicans for referring to former President Donald Trump’s role in appointing three Supreme Court justices involved in the Dobbs case.
“The fact that the Senate Finance Committee has never had a nonsitting president’s name in its hearing title, which should tell us all we need to know about the reason for this hearing,” said Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID), a ranking member.
“Unfortunately, as demonstrated, partisan nature of the title of this hearing, it appears the purpose of today’s hearing is to score political points against a former president,” he continued.
Several Republicans, including Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), highlighted that the name of the hearing politicized the highly volatile matter of pregnancy complications exactly six weeks before the election.
“We’re in the political silly season now where we’re having hearings like the one we’re having today,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC)
Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) said the hearing was called by Wyden “because Democrats are trying to find opportunities to score points on the only issue they think they stand a chance to win on in this upcoming election with no regard for the truth.”
Medical care for pregnancy emergencies
Thurman’s case came to light last week and was referenced by Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday during a campaign stop in Atlanta.
Thurman, a 28-year-old Georgia resident, arrived at an emergency room five days after taking the abortion pills mifepristone and misoprostol to terminate her nine-week pregnancy.
Although Thurman had signs of sepsis, a severe infection caused in this case by an incomplete abortion, she was not given antibiotics until three hours after arriving at the hospital.
Doctors only performed surgery on Thurman to remove the remaining pregnancy tissue 17 hours after starting antibiotics, and Thurman tragically died on the table.
Abortion under emergency circumstances, such as Thurman’s, falls under the Finance Committee’s jurisdiction under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, which requires healthcare providers to treat patients in medical emergencies regardless of their ability to pay.
Harris, in her speech last week, and several Democrats on the Finance Committee blamed Trump for Georgia’s law prohibiting abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, arguing that the state law contributed to doctors being unable to treat Thurman, thereby violating EMTALA.
One of the witnesses on the panel, community organizer Kaitlyn Joshua, shared her testimony of being turned away from two different hospitals in Louisiana in 2022 while experiencing a miscarriage at 11 weeks of pregnancy.
“I just want to push back on the notion that this is political theater,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), “because I’ll tell you: for those women in that situation, for those OB GYN in that situation. This is not political theater. This is a wrong that is being done to them right now as a result of very bad political decision making.”
Six of the 22 states that have passed gestational age limits on abortion, many of which have prohibited abortion at any age, prevent physicians from performing abortions unless doing so is intended to save the life of the mother.
The Supreme Court in June used technical grounds to dismiss the case from the Biden-Harris administration that Idaho’s abortion ban, which only allows abortion to save a woman’s life, violates EMTALA, staying silent on the merits of the challenge to anti-abortion laws.
Afraid to seek emergency care in pregnancy
Republicans on the committee and witnesses for the minority, both affiliated with anti-abortion advocacy groups, argued that laws placing gestational age limits on abortion are written explicitly to prevent ambiguity on how doctors are supposed to handle miscarriage and other pregnancy-related emergencies.
Heather Hacker, a Texas lawyer who has represented the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, testified that women in states with anti-abortion legislation that believe the law will prevent them from receiving care “are sadly misinformed.”
“In general, the legal definition of abortion is the determination of a pregnancy with the intent to cause the death of the unborn child,” said Hacker. “Under that definition, which only varies slightly from state to state, procedures to treat ectopic pregnancy or miscarriage are not abortions because they are not procedures performed with the intent to cause the death of the unborn child.”
Hacker outlined for the committee that the Dobbs decision “did nothing to change how exceptions to abortion laws apply,” allowing doctors to use their “reasonable medical judgment” or their “good faith medical judgment” to determine when an abortion is necessary.
The case of Candi Miller, a 41-year-old Georgia mother of three who also died in 2022 due to abortion pill complications, was also discussed briefly during the Tuesday hearing.
Miller purchased the abortion pills online without a physical examination from a doctor, which became standard practice for prescribing mifepristone under the Biden-Harris administration, in part due to accessing abortions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Although she experienced severe complications similar to those of Thurman, Miller did not seek medical care according to her husband and son because she was afraid of Georgia’s anti-abortion statutes.
“If they are afraid, maybe it’s because here in the United States Senate’s Finance Committee, we’re holding a hearing that says human women’s health care now is criminalized, maybe like that in the hearing is causing chaos,” said Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), referencing cases such as Miller’s where women are frightened to seek medical attention.
2024 election implications
Senate Democrats announced Tuesday morning, prior to the hearing, that they intended to urge Republicans to vote on access to emergency abortion care as a final push on the pivotal matter before Congress breaks for recess ahead of the 2024 election in November.
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Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) is reportedly intending to seek unanimous consent to pass a resolution reaffirming the spirit of EMTALA and that abortion ought to be included as emergency healthcare.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) is also planning to seek unanimous consent on a bill that would offset travel costs for women who need to travel between state lines to receive an abortion.