By Nate Raymond
(Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday rescinded guidance issued during his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden’s tenure requiring hospitals to provide abortions to women in medical emergencies regardless of various state bans on the procedure.
The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said the 2022 guidance, which interpreted a federal law that ensures patients can receive emergency “stabilizing care” as preempting state abortion bans, did not reflect the policy of the Trump administration.
The agency, which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said it “will work to rectify any perceived legal confusion and instability created by the former administration’s actions.”
The Biden administration issued the guidance in July 2022 weeks after the 6-3 conservative majority U.S. Supreme Court overturned its 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that had recognized a nationwide right of women to obtain abortions.
The 2022 guidance reminded healthcare providers across the country of their obligations under a 1986 federal law called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) to ensure Medicare-participating hospitals offer emergency care stabilizing patients regardless of their ability to pay.
Medicare is the government healthcare program for the elderly. Hospitals that violate EMTALA risk losing Medicare funding.
The 2022 guidance aimed to make clear that under EMTALA, physicians must provide a woman an abortion if needed to resolve a medical emergency and stabilize the patient even in states where the procedure is banned and that the federal law preempted any state laws that offer no exceptions for medical emergencies.
After issuing the guidance, the U.S. Department of Justice sued the state of Idaho in a bid to stop it from enforcing its near-total abortion ban in medical emergencies.
A federal judge at the Justice Department’s urging blocked the Idaho from enforcing the ban during medical emergencies, but the Trump administration in March dropped that lawsuit, resulting in that injunction being lifted.
The ban still remains blocked in emergencies due to a similar lawsuit brought by a hospital system.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Marguerita Choy)
