Trump administration revokes guidance requiring hospitals to provide
emergency abortions
[June 04, 2025]
By AMANDA SEITZ and GEOFF MULVIHILL
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration announced on Tuesday that it
would revoke guidance to the nation's hospitals that directed them to
provide emergency abortions for women when they are necessary to
stabilize their medical condition.
That guidance was issued to hospitals in 2022, weeks after the U.S.
Supreme Court upended national abortion rights in the U.S. It was an
effort by the Biden administration to preserve abortion access for
extreme cases in which women were experiencing medical emergencies and
needed an abortion to prevent organ loss or severe hemorrhaging, among
other serious complications.
The Biden administration had argued that hospitals — including ones in
states with near-total bans — needed to provide emergency abortions
under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. That law
requires emergency rooms that receive Medicare dollars to provide an
exam and stabilizing treatment for all patients. Nearly all emergency
rooms in the U.S. rely on Medicare funds.
The Trump administration announced on Tuesday that it would no longer
enforce that policy.
The move prompted concerns from some doctors and abortion rights
advocates that women will not get emergency abortions in states with
strict bans.
“The Trump Administration would rather women die in emergency rooms than
receive life-saving abortions,” Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the
Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement. “In pulling back
guidance, this administration is feeding the fear and confusion that
already exists at hospitals in every state where abortion is banned.
Hospitals need more guidance, not less, to stop them from turning away
patients experiencing pregnancy crises.”
Anti-abortion advocates, meanwhile, praised the announcement. Marjorie
Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-Life America, said in a statement
that the Biden-era policy had been a way to expand abortion access in
states where it was banned.
[to top of second column]
|
President Donald Trump speaks at U.S. Steel Corporation's Mon Valley
Works-Irvin plant, Friday, May 30, 2025, in West Mifflin, Pa. (AP
Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
 “Democrats have created confusion on
this fact to justify their extremely unpopular agenda for
all-trimester abortion,” she said. “In situations where every minute
counts, their lies lead to delayed care and put women in needless,
unacceptable danger.”
An Associated Press investigation last year found that, even with
the Biden administration’s guidance, dozens of pregnant women were
being turned away from emergency rooms, including some who needed
emergency abortions.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which provides
oversight of hospitals, said in a statement that it will continue to
enforce the federal law that, “including for identified emergency
medical conditions that place the health of a pregnant woman or her
unborn child in serious jeopardy.”
But CMS added that it would also “rectify any perceived legal
confusion and instability created by the former administration's
actions.”
The Biden administration sued Idaho over its abortion law that
initially only allowed abortions to save the life of the mother. The
federal government had argued before the U.S. Supreme Court last
year that Idaho's law was in conflict with the federal law, which
requires stabilizing treatment that prevents a patient's condition
from worsening.
The U.S. Supreme Court issued a procedural ruling in the case last
year that left key questions unanswered about whether doctors in
abortion-ban states can terminate pregnancies when a woman is at
risk of serious infection, organ loss or hemorrhage.
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved
 |
