<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1661458783622,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"0000017d-fe9d-da96-ad7d-ffbf8a5c0000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1661458783622,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"0000017d-fe9d-da96-ad7d-ffbf8a5c0000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_61189734", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1080857"} }); ","_id":"00000182-d6a9-d02d-adbf-ffbb12ca0000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedThe Biden administration signaled it will challenge any opposition from Republicans to its guidance requiring medical facilities to provide provide emergency abortions to women regardless of state bans.
The Biden administration highlighted its commitment to ensure that women have access to emergency care, including abortions, through a decades-old federal law in a letter to governors, as the administration seeks to emphasize its work to protect reproductive rights on Women’s Equality Day.
TEXAS JUDGE BLOCKS BIDEN ADMINISTRATION EMERGENCY ABORTION GUIDANCE
“Where a state purports to prohibit providers from offering the emergency care that EMTALA requires, HHS will not hesitate to refer the matter to the Department of Justice to take appropriate legal action,” wrote Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure.
It encouraged states to apply for waivers to provide abortions for patients traveling out of state through Medicaid, a public insurance program for lower income individuals.
Friday’s efforts may frustrate some abortion rights advocates and Democratic lawmakers who have called on the administration to take more concrete action to ensure abortion access, such as using federal lands to provide abortion services, as some states adopt more restrictive laws.
The White House will hold a meeting on with state and local leaders, including Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott and Durham Mayor Elaine O’Neal, on Friday to discuss how states can protect abortion access.
The HHS has also released a report detailing steps they have taken to ensure access to medication abortion, contraception, and protecting patients’ privacy.
Last month, the Department of Health and Human Services issued guidance related to the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, or EMTALA, stating that hospitals in the federally funded Medicare program are required to provide medical care, including performing an abortion, when a person’s life or health is at stake, regardless of abortion laws in the state.
The guidance has already seen several legal challenges this week. A federal judge in Texas blocked the Biden administration from enforcing the guidance in the state, arguing it goes “well beyond EMTALA’s text” while declining to rule on its legality nationwide. In Idaho, a federal judge sided with the administration, ruling that a statute of the state’s abortion law, which criminalizes providers who perform an abortion on a woman to protect her health, conflicts with the federal guidance.
“We will continue to make clear and enforce that federal law across the country, no matter where patients live, they have the right to emergency care, including abortion care if their doctor determines that’s necessary,” a senior Biden administration official said Thursday.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Biden has commemorated Aug. 26 as Women’s Equality Day in recognition of the anniversary of the day that the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, was certified.
