Biden wanted to force ER doctors to refer and perform abortions under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), and Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is grateful that President Trump has put a stop to it.
The Department of Health and Human Services and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have officially rescinded July 2022 guidance with the subject "Reinforcement of EMTALA Obligations specific to Patients who are Pregnant or are Experiencing Pregnancy Loss" and the accompanying letter from the former secretary of Health and Human Services, "which do not reflect the policy of this administration," the announcement reads.
CMS will continue to enforce EMTALA, which protects all individuals who present to a hospital emergency department seeking examination or treatment, including for identified emergency medical conditions that place the health of a pregnant woman or her unborn child in serious jeopardy. CMS will work to rectify any perceived legal confusion and instability created by the former administration's actions.
"Doctors and hospitals are in the job of preserving life, and yet the Biden administration issued an order requiring them to perform abortions," says ADF attorney Matt Bowman. "They issued this after Roe v. Wade was overturned, and they did it as a blatant political action."
ADF brought lawsuits against the Biden administration because of this mandate.
The first was on behalf of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Christian Medical and Dental Associations. ADF won that case when a court in Texas struck down the mandate, but it only protected Texas and the doctors in those organizations.
In January, before President Biden officially left office, the Christian legal advocacy group brought another lawsuit on behalf of the Catholic Medical Association, saying there was no lawful basis for the mandate.
"We're really grateful that … we're able to dismiss this lawsuit because the Trump administration repealed the mandate and restored the protection for both they mother and the unborn child," says Bowman.
But he says people should be watching for another, future administration to try to bring back this type of order.
"The federal government has become far too willing, under certain administrations, to mandate that people be involved in gender transitions or abortions or all kinds of politically motivated things, even when there is no law that Congress passed authorizing these agencies and these bureaucrats to issue these mandates," Bowman notes.
He says ADF will continue to fight to ensure that federal agencies stay within the laws and statutes that are passed by Congress – elected officials who are answerable to the people, unlike the bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. "who don't seem to answer to anybody."
