ICYMI: More than 250 Members of Congress Urge Supreme Court to Protect Emergency Abortion Care
For Immediate Release: March 29, 2024
WASHINGTON, D.C. –- This week, more than 250 members of Congress filed a bicameral amicus brief in Moyle v. United States, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold a lower court ruling that protects emergency abortion care in hospitals — as required by the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). This is a pivotal case: Pregnant people across the country could face devastating health outcomes, even death, if the court determines that hospitals do not have an obligation to provide pregnant patients with the emergency abortion care they may need.
Led by Sens. Schumer, Murray, Wyden, and Durbin and Reps. Jeffries, Clark, Pallone, Neal, Nadler, DeGette, and Lee, the signers of the brief wrote:
“In this case, respecting the supremacy of federal law is about more than just protecting our system of government; it is about protecting people’s lives. If this Court allows Idaho’s near-total abortion ban to supersede federal law, pregnant patients in Idaho will continue to be denied appropriate medical treatment, placing them at heightened risk for medical complications and severe adverse health outcomes.”
Without this critical federal law, a hospital could refuse to treat a pregnant person in a medical emergency — including their water breaking dangerously early; uncontrollable hemorrhage, which can cause kidney failure or sepsis; and pre-eclampsia, which could cause seizures or brain injury.
The signers of the brief made clear:
“These are not hypothetical scenarios. Because Idaho’s abortion ban contains no clear exceptions for the ‘emergency medical conditions’ covered by EMTALA, physicians are forced to wait until their patients are on the verge of death before providing abortion care. The result in other states with similar laws has been ‘significant maternal morbidity…Federal law does not allow Idaho to endanger the lives of its residents in this way.”
The full brief can be read here.
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