((The hill) – The Trump administration has lifted the instructions that tell the health care staff who offer abortions to save the life of their patients that they are protected according to the federal law.
The Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced On Tuesday that it will be returned by guidelines during the bid administration, they increased to hospitals that they have to divided pregnant patients in the context of the emergency Act for Medical Treatment and Labor (Emtala) when they are needed to save their lives.
“Legally, it means nothing,” Alexa Kolbi-Molina, deputy director of the project on the reproductive freedom of the American Civil Liberties Union, told The Hill. “The obligation to ensure emergency care [Donald] With this press release, Trump and Secretary Kennedy cannot delete 40 years of legal dispute. ”
In a statement, CMS said that the agency would continue to enforce Emtala, which protects all patients with the treatment of emergencies, including “identified emergency diseases that provide the health of a pregnant woman or her unborn child in serious danger”.
“CMS will work to correct any perceived legal confusion and instability that are created by the actions of the previous administration,” added the explanation.
The change in guidelines takes place about two months after the Trump administration has reduced a top-class case on the right to an emergency abandonment in Idaho, which said experts in health policy, a signal for one “upcoming reversalBy the Emtala guidelines published by the bidges.
Emtala was adopted in 1986 to protect the Americans from “patientMaging”, a practice in hospitals and other clinics in which patients are transferred to other institutions due to their insolvency without consent. The Biden administration in 2022 gave the Roe v. A cascade of state laws quickly banned abortion, but the instructions enabled emergency procedures and protected doctors in these cases.
The move does not change the law, but it makes it more confusing for doctors to know what care they can legally provide pregnancy terminations, especially if, according to Kolbi-Molinas, they can practice abortion bans in states. Reproductive rights groups and health service providers beat the move and argue that this will deeply impair the health of pregnant people in the United States.
“By lifting this guide, the Trump government sent a clear signal that it is not with the majority, but with its allies against abortion and this will lead to women at the expense of life,” said Kolbi-Molinas. “The ACLU will use every lever that we have in order to prevent President Trump and his administration from endangering our health and our lives.”
Jamila Perritt, President and CEO of the group doctors for reproductive health, said that she was “deeply worried” about the decision of the Trump government to change the instructions and argues that it is left to their responsibility towards people who need medical emergency care.
“This campaign sends a clear message: life and health of pregnant people are not worth protecting,” she said in A Opinion. “Consulting of this law can mean the difference between life and death for pregnant people and force providers like me to decide in his need and to turn their back on their backs to comply with the cruel and dangerous laws …”
In the meantime, some anti-abortions praised the step of CMS and called it a “victory”.
“Under the direction of Dr. OZ, the Trump government has achieved another victory for life and truth – Singing [former President Joe] Bidens attack on emergency care for both pregnant mothers and their unborn children, ”Marjorie Dannenfelser, President of the Anthony B. Anthony Pro-Life America.
“We ask for more states to follow the leadership of the Trump government and adopt Medic Ed laws to protect women from misinformation from the abortion lobby.”
