Senator questions hospitals about emergency care in states with abortion bans

A key senator is asking hospitals in states with abortion bans what they are doing to ensure that patents aren’t being denied emergency care.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, has sent letters to eight hospitals in states with abortion bans asking how they are ensuring access to emergency care.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, sent letters to eight hospitals Monday to find out more about their procedures and steps to ensure patients can be treated in an emergency. The hospitals are based in six states that have banned abortion.

Wyden said he’s reaching out in light of reports that women are being refused care or are forced to wait until their lives are in danger.

“Across the country, there are reports that women are being turned away by emergency departments when they seek emergency reproductive health care, even in instances where medical professionals determine that, without such care, the patient is at risk of serious complications, infection, or even death,” Wyden wrote in the letter.

Wyden wrote that patients are caught between state laws and the federal law - the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, or EMTALA. The federal law is designed to ensure that all patients receive care at a hospital in an emergency. President Biden’s administration has argued that even in states with abortion bans, the federal law still applies. States have fought the Biden administration on that issue.

“I am concerned that hospitals may be violating federal law by restricting access to stabilizing treatment when individuals present with emergency medical conditions,” Wyden wrote in the letter.

The senator is asking hospitals to outline the steps they are taking to communicate to staff about hospital protocols and standards of care. Wyden also asked hospitals to explain the process for pregnant patients showing up in the emergency department, how they are assessed, and when an abortion would be the appropriate treatment.

In addition, he’s asking those hospitals to describe how they are informing their patients of their right to emergency care under federal law, including any signs or written materials.

Wyden sent letters to the following hospitals: Ascension Seton Edgar B. Davis and Falls Community Hospital & Clinic, both in Texas; Baton Rouge General and Women’s Hospital, both in Louisiana; Freeman Health System in Missouri; Holmes Regional Medical Center in Florida; Person Memorial Hospital in North Carolina and Piedmont Henry Hospital in Georgia.

ProPublica reported a story about the death of a 28-year-old woman in Georgia who waited 20 hours before doctors at Piedmont began emergency surgery. She suffered rare complications after taking abortion medication in another state. A state committee reviewing her case said her death was preventable, ProPublica reported.

Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, a total of 22 states have enacted laws restricting abortion or banning it in almost all cases.

In June, the high court ruled on a case involving Idaho’s abortion law and said that doctors and hospitals can provide emergency abortion care without fear of going to prison. Idaho’s law only allowed doctors to intervene to save the life of the mother, and offered no exceptions for women facing serious health risks.

Healthcare advocates, including the American Medical Association, said they were disappointed that the high court didn’t deliver a stronger defense of federal law guaranteeing emergency care to patients.

Hospitals and physicians have said they are frustrated by confusing or vague state laws that make it difficult to know when they can intervene to save patients and ensure they don’t suffer life-altering complications.

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, has made abortion access a centerpiece of her campaign. She has pledged to sign legislation restoring Roe v. Wade.

At an event in Georgia Friday, Harris talked about state abortion laws and their impact on emergency care.

“This is a healthcare crisis, and Donald Trump is the architect of this crisis,” Harris said. She added, “He is proud, proud that women are dying. Proud that doctors and nurses could be thrown in prison for administering care?”

In her debate with former President Donald Trump, Harris also pointed to patients being denied emergency care due to state laws prohibiting or vastly restricting abortion.

“Pregnant women who want to carry a pregnancy to term, suffering from a miscarriage, being denied care in an emergency room because the healthcare providers are afraid they might go to jail and she's bleeding out in a car in the parking lot … She didn't want that. Her husband didn't want that,” Harris said at the debate.

Trump has said he is proud to have returned the question of access to abortion to the states to decide.

At the debate, and in subsequent interviews, Trump has said the issue of abortion access should remain with the states. But at the debate, Trump didn’t answer when asked what he would do as president if a bill to outlaw abortion nationwide reaches his desk.