"The Biden administration released updated guidance on Monday, reminding doctors around the country that they’re protected by federal law if they terminate a patient’s pregnancy as part of treatment in an emergency circumstance — and threatening to fine or strip the Medicare status from hospitals that fail to do so.
The action, announced just over two weeks after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, comes in response to reports of widespread confusion in states that have enacted bans about when doctors can perform abortions without risking prosecution. It’s one of many demands that progressive activists and lawmakers have made of the administration in recent weeks."
This is all explained and backed by federal law HERE.
July 11, 2022Contact: HHS Press Office
202-690-6343
media@hhs.gov
Following President Biden’s Executive Order to Protect Access to Reproductive Health Care, HHS Announces Guidance to Clarify that Emergency Medical Care Includes Abortion Services
Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced new guidance and communication to ensure all patients — including pregnant women and others experiencing pregnancy loss — have access to the full rights and protections for emergency medical care afforded under the law.
This announcement follows President Biden’s executive order on reproductive health issued Friday.
HHS, through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), issued clarifying guidance on the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) and reaffirmed that it protects providers when offering legally-mandated, life- or health-saving abortion services in emergency situations.
In addition to the guidance, Secretary Xavier Becerra, in a letter to providers, made clear that this federal law preempts state law restricting access to abortion in emergency situations.
“Under the law, no matter where you live, women have the right to emergency care — including abortion care,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra.
“Today, in no uncertain terms, we are reinforcing that we expect providers to continue offering these services, and that federal law preempts state abortion bans when needed for emergency care. Protecting both patients and providers is a top priority, particularly in this moment. Health care must be between a patient and their doctor, not a politician. We will continue to leverage all available resources at HHS to make sure women can access the life-saving care they need.”
22 comments:
I am not wanting to argue this but constitutionally he is wrong - he cannot 'out the law' with this.
""The Biden administration released updated guidance on Monday, reminding doctors around the country that they’re protected by federal law if they terminate a patient’s pregnancy as part of treatment in an emergency circumstance — and threatening to fine or strip the Medicare status from hospitals that fail to do so."
This paragraph makes Biden a murderer.
You don't have to publish this Shaw, it is just FYI.
My political blog is "Politics Rewritten" - you may enjoy it.
https://politicsrewritten.wordpress.com/
"...reminding doctors around the country that they’re protected by federal law if they terminate a patient’s pregnancy as part of treatment in an emergency circumstance..."
Elizabeth, you believe saving the life of a pregnant woman when that may terminate a pregnancy is murder?
It is the doctor who makes the decision in an "emergency circumstance. It is the doctor who determines what the safest and best thing is to do in extreme dire circumstances, like an ectopic pregnancy, or when a pregnant woman is diagnosed with cancer, and the treatments would be fatal to the fetus. These horrible things happen, and it is medical professionals who should make decisions along with the woman and her family, not politicians in state houses around the country.
How does that make President Biden a "murderer?"
“Under the law, no matter where you live, women have the right to emergency care — including abortion care,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra."
I see unsure doctors checking with unsure hospital administration advised by unsure hospital lawyers.
You are right so why do these pro-abortionists need Biden to write this garbage? Since when does a lay person, a lawyer et al tell a doctor to do his job? It would be unheard for a doctor to tell an attorney how to mete out the law.
"...reminding doctors around the country that they’re protected by federal law if they terminate a patient’s pregnancy as part of treatment in an emergency circumstance..."
Doctors should not need the federal government to tell them they are protected and it should be a doctor's choice to perform or not perform an abortion - not the law, federal or otherwise. Abortion because a guy did not protect himself and the woman is foolish not to take birth control and has multiple abortions commit murder.
In cases of rape, incest, severe deformity of an embryo/fetus, or ectopic pregnancy endangering a woman's life is one thing. It is a whole different matter for these ignorant women who play madam butterfly but do not want the responsibility of that. We should not make it easy for them to commit murder.
Mike the "right to abortion" under "emergency care," not because they don't want the baby. They should have the baby and put it up for adoption. Killing life is wrong. A seed does not grow if that seed is dead. The same holds true for human life. What is wrong with people. People revere dogs and cats more than human life. Selfish and sick. Murders.
Elizabeth, President Biden didn't write The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), he only pointed out that EMTALA covers treatment for abortion in emergencies presented at emergency departments in hospitals.
I'm curious about your reference to "Madam Butterfly." In the story, she was a Japanese woman impregnated by a US Naval officer who abandoned her. She did not have an abortion, in fact, in the story and opera, she kills herself after the US Naval officer returns to Japan, as he promised her, only for M. Butterfly to discover he had married another woman from the states.
So I don't know what your Madam Butterfly reference is about.
Anyway, I don't believe it's anyone else's business except a woman's and her health care provider's what her reasons are for an abortion.
Shaw, my reference has nothing to do with the "Madame Butterfly" story you cite, which I am well aware of. It is a term coined by many women who are pro-life when a woman is lose, and sleeps around, instead of saying these derogatory remarks, instead, we call her madam butterfly referring to the fact she spreads her legs open too much and too often and then goes and has an abortion and kills another innocent.
As to Biden, just because he did not write does not mean he is not responsible, nor does not have innocent blood on his hands, he signed 'The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) yesterday,' which was explicitly written for women seeking to kill their unborn babies.
Anyway, I don't believe it's anyone else's business except a woman's and her health care provider's what her reasons are for an abortion.
You should care, it is all our business because the money-making business of abortion still kills women, and breaks down our moral national fiber, which is detrimental as we all can see in our society. When killing the unborn is okay, but saving a dog is more important than something is very wrong and sick in our nation. It all begins with sick, immoral, lack of conscience people who would rather live in sin and give no account and discount God than t believe in God and do what is right and moral.
A seed - even a human seed - cannot and will not grow IF IT IS NOT ALIVE at the inception be it dirt or the womb.
Elizebeth - How do you eat anything? Meat is from life. Vegetables are from life. Fruit is from life. Water has life in it unless you kill it before you drink it. How are still alive?
BTW, when did I mention abortion?
Elizabeth: "Shaw, my reference has nothing to do with the "Madame Butterfly" story you cite, which I am well aware of. It is a term coined by many women who are pro-life when a woman is lose, and sleeps around, instead of saying these derogatory remarks, instead, we call her madam butterfly referring to the fact she spreads her legs open too much and too often and then goes and has an abortion and kills another innocent."
S.K. How do you and others who coined the name "madam buttlerfly" to insult women know what their circumstances for an abortion are? Do you and they interview them to know how often they "spread their legs?" I detect more than a smidgen of judgmental scolding and the desire to shame and punish women in your explanation. Didn't someone once caution "Judge not lest ye be judged?"
ElizabethAs to Biden, just because he did not write does not mean he is not responsible, nor does not have innocent blood on his hands, he signed 'The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) yesterday,' which was explicitly written for women seeking to kill their unborn babies.
S.K. Using the term "to kill their unborn babies" is incendiary and employed by anti-abortionists to shame and demean girls and women who seek reproductive care for reason you and others will never know. It is IMO vindictive and cruel and accomplishes nothing except it allows those who use it to assume the role of a judge and jury on the girls and women who seek reproductive care.
S.K. "Anyway, I don't believe it's anyone else's business except a woman's and her health care provider's what her reasons are for an abortion."
Elizabeth "You should care, it is all our business because the money-making business of abortion still kills women..."
S.K. As our 2nd POTUS once said, "Facts are stubborn things." And it is a fact that giving birth is more dangerous than having an abortion. Please look this up for yourself to verify it.
If you and others who so ardently profess that all life is sacred actually believed that, wouldn't you and they want to know why the United States lags so shamefully in infant and maternal mortality compared to other advanced countries. That is another fact that you can verify by googling it. A Communist country, Cuba, has a better record for both. Why do you suppose that is?
And if you and others care so deeply about all life, where is you concern for the living, breathing children? Right now, in the U.S., firearms are the leading cause of death for children. And yet I've never seen any anti-abortionist marching to do something about that shameful fact.
High infant and maternal mortality rates as well as firearms being the leading cause of childhood deaths are ignored but being judgmental and scolding about why girls and women seek abortions are accepted is, IMO, what tears the moral fiber apart in a sane society.
Elizabeth "It all begins with sick, immoral, lack of conscience people who would rather live in sin and give no account and discount God than believe in God and do what is right and moral."
S.K. I'm sorry I don't agree with you on that statement. I've lived long enough to witness "godly" people/nations commit the most immoral and unrighteous acts on humanity so that I've come to understand that being "godly" is meaningless to me."
Stephen Weinberg, a Nobel Laureate once said: "Good people will always do good things, and evil people will always do evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."
Republicans real constituency is the 1% and even the heftiest gerrymandering and voter suppression could not get them elected. So they embraced the far right evangelicals, whose chief goals have been the elimination of abortion and the enforcement by law of a theocratic ideology of misogyny and patriarchy. (See Elizabeth's comment.)
The evangelicals don't believe in social programs because they reward promiscuity and permit women to live without a man in charge. The 1% are happy because no taxes need be raised to pay for such programs and their wealth insulates them from the brutal outcomes of the evangelical theocracy.
"Work" is the shibboleth that unites the two. The 1% want a disciplined labor force, living so close to the edge of poverty that they are afraid to confront their bosses on wages or working conditions. The evangelicals look to Genesis, where God told disobedient Adam and Eve that they must earn their bread by the sweat of their brows, and Eve must suffer in childbirth.
The intersection consists of the evangelical leaders whose wealth catapults them into the 1%. They live the luxurious life the rich and benefit from Republican tax policy.
Republican reverence for life seems to begin and end at the human fetus. Upon birth, any concern about a child's wellbeing somehow quickly evaporates into the ether - especially if the baby has brown skin.
Unwanted children growing up in poverty do help keep the jails full, however. But then again, there's all those pesky homeless. Such problems, of course, are all due to the godless democrats.
Shaw pointed out the rank hypocrisy of the Evangelical Trumpers who take joy in shaming and calling women "madam butterfly" and speak of "spreading legs" while ignoring the maternal and infant mortality rates in America and the leading cause of death in children -- GUNS!
What did their Jesus say about hypocrites???
Former Christian here. I was raised in the Church. I remember a story in the NT where Jesus shamed those who were insulting a prostitute and told them who were without sin to cast the first stones. That's from my memory, I may not have all of it perfect, but there it is.
Your commenter Elizabeth used cruel and mean language to broadly paint women who seek abortion as women who "spread their legs" too much and too often and are "loose" and "sleeping around."
How does she know this? And why use such mean language on women she doesn't know? I see only meanness and a form of bullying in that sort of language instead of compassion and love for girls and women in trouble. In trouble because a male inseminated them! But let's force the girls and women to carry to term an unwanted fetus because they keep their "legs open" and are "loose?"
My take is this shows a hatred of women and their right to determine what happens to their bodies.
Shaw, Elizabeth et al...
Look, the struggle over abortion has been going on here in the US since the late 1970's. Fact Elizabeth... neither the Catholic, the evangelical church or even the Mormon church, all anti abortion today, had much to say about abortion in the early years after Roe. The POV of all of these denominations was "we don't approve of sex outside of marriage, but if you do have sex, use birth control. And... if you get pregnant, be responsible, because pregnancy outside of marriage is horrible."
The clear implication? Don't be pregnant. So do whatever it takes to avoid that, including abortion.
So what changed?
What changed is that Jerry Falwell, Bob Jones and others were angry at the Carter Administration for eliminating the tax exempt status of Bob Jones University because it refused to admit black students. In the 1970's. Years after a SCOTUS decision making that practice illegal.
Evangelical religious leaders were mad because the actions of the Carter Admin threatened their autonomy to run their schools as they wished, even if it was racist.
According to author Randall Balmer in a well researched and independently verified article it wasn’t until 1979 — a full six years after Roe — that evangelical leaders, at the behest of conservative activist Paul Weyrich, seized on abortion not for moral reasons, but as a rallying-cry to deny President Jimmy Carter a second term. Why? Because the anti-abortion crusade was more palatable than the religious right’s real motive: protecting segregated schools [such as Bob Jones University].
I understand how the evangelical community views abortion. And to a point, I am sympathetic. But I'm a pro-choice guy who believes that decision, as hard as it can be, should be between a woman, her doctor and hopefully her pastor, priest, rabbi or other trusted advisor. I'm a safe, legal and rare guy.
Look, here in Nevada in the years after ACA [Obamacare for some] GOP Governor Sandoval expanded Medicaid to provide better access to health care to young people and children. That included expanded access to birth control at greatly reduced prices, or in some cases free.
The result was the largest decrease in abortions our state had ever seen. You might think this would be welcome by evangelical pastors and the GOP in our state.
But when Sandoval went before the state legislature in his state of the state address we saw where their hearts really were. He trumpeted the decrease in abortions. A longtime GOP goal he called it, had been achieved, the dramatic lowering of unwanted pregnancies, a lowering of abortions and better health care for women combined.
And then he said it was because Nevada had accepted the Medicaid expansion offered in the roll out of the ACA.
What happened next was stunning. Democrats rose to their feet in applause. The GOP? They sat silently, because to them Sandoval was a traitor for accepting aid from the Obama Admin. And because those cherished goals they held had been achieved not by eliminating abortion, but through access to birth control, which in their minds, allowed women to continue to have sex outside of marriage without consequences.
In my discussions with pastors here, there was little to celebrate for them, even though we had dramatically cut abortions. Because it was not in the method they wanted.
They wanted and still want, legislation to change the hearts and minds of people as it relates to sex. Because despite all their efforts, they have been mostly ineffective in reaching the hearts and minds of people.
The real question you should be asking is why that is so.
And I'll give you a hint... it has a lot less to do with hostility to God and a whole lot more to do with an inability or unwillingness of religious leaders and church goers to act self sacrificially like Jesus in their day to day interactions with others.
Here's an idea people who are against abortion can think about:
"You are not being asked to change your belief or religion. You are being asked to let people make their own decisions about their bodies, their religion, who they love, and so on.
This doesn't affect you.
If you truly believe it is wrong, then let God judge them and worry about how He judges you instead."
Ray gets the Sterling Plaque for his astute and concise response to anti-abortionists.
As if on cue, the GOP in Texas and Indiana, in spite of the protestations of conservatives who come here and also comment at a few sites us crazy progressives visit, are moving quickly to close ANY potential loopholes for women.
In Texas, the GOP is moving to invalidate a woman's access to abortion in the event she is in the middle of a medical emergency and that abortion would save the mother's life.
And in Indiana, where the 10 year old Ohio rape victim went for her abortion, in spite of ppl like Tucker Carlson, Jesse Watters and even -FJ claiming none of that ever happened, the state GOP is now investigating the doctor who performed the procedure.
BTW, to date, neither Carlson, Watters or -FJ have stepped forward after the rapist plead guilty, and said their calling the entire story "Fake News" was wrong or apologized to the girl and her supporters for essentially calling us all liars.
But that was to be expected, wasn't it?
Dave, These draconian laws being passed in the red states show a shocking disregard for girls' and women's lives. Not allowing for emergency medical care for dangerous pregnancies will result in the deaths of both fetus and mother, and those who pass those terrible laws know it. I can only assume that the point of these anti-life laws is punishment for girls and women, and note, there is nothing to address the males who impregnate them.
As for -FJ and his "fake news" claim, I posted the link at Elizabeth's blog to the story the 10-year-old child's rape and rapist being charged and the verification that it was true.
-FJ and his sock puppets were wrong again, as they've been wrong about the 2020 election being stolen; as they were wrong about the Arizona and Wisconsin audits that they were SURE would prove the 2020 election was stolen; as they were wrong about the Durham report; and as they were wrong that Hillary would end up in jail.
They are part of the 30% of this country that believed in Trump's lies and continue to trust in a Liar, a Cheat, a Fraud, and now that the story of Trump's REAL attempt to steal the election from Joe Biden, we can add "traitor" to the list of what Trump is.
trai·tor
/ˈtrādər/
Learn to pronounce
noun
a person who betrays a friend, country, principle, etc.
Trump betrayed his sacred oath to America and the people who trusted him.
A traitor.
The peole who continue to support Trump and deny the truth as to who and what Trump is and what he did are essentially just as traitorous as Trump at this poinr.
Trust nothing that Trump or his supporters utter. They are ALL essentialy liars and traitors or just plain stupid.
Shaw, Let's not forget GOP House Rep. Jim Jordan, who also said it was a lie. Now he has quietly removed his accusatory tweet, without a word of apology to anyone, including the girl's family.
To add insult to injury, several GOP elected officials, including women, have reacted with shock that a ten year old was even physically able to get pregnant. That includes the ones who stated beliefs that the body has a defense mechanism to prevent pregnancy when it is raped.
Why do these ppl keep getting elected?
I heard on PBS's News Hour that some Evangelicals said it would be a blessing for the 10-year-old to have the child and raise it.
A ten-year-old raising a baby?
The girl is a 4th grader. Her body hasn't finished developing. A gynecologist said she probably would have to have a C-section in order to deliver! Imagine forcing a child, a child who's been raped! to endure that?
Any sane human would NOT force a child to endure that.
I feel like I'm living in a modern version of the Salem Witch Trials, where instead of clergy sending innocent women to their deaths on the flimsy evidence of people's dreams of witches, we have insane religionists condemning children to carry a rapist's fetus.
NEW: The Attorney General of Indiana Todd Rokita (R) is moving to criminally prosecute the doctor who helped the 10-year-old Ohio rape victim receive an abortion.
This is what a real witch hunt looks like.
A country that forces a ten-year-old girl, a victim of rape, to carry a fetus to term, and then goes after the doctor who probably saved her life, is a country that's descended into barbarism!
Evil is alive, well, and growing in this country. Its been present all along. Only now its fashionable for conservative/republicans/religionists since Trump and his band of authotitarian fascists made it so.
Post a Comment