VA Hospitals Must Offer Abortions To Save Mother’s Life: Biden

VIRGINIA — President Joe Biden told emergency room doctors in Virginia and elsewhere across the country recently that they “must” perform abortions if necessary to save a mother’s life — even if abortions are banned without exception through laws triggered by the Supreme Court decision last month ending the constitutional right to an abortion.

Doctors and hospitals are protected from prosecution by an existing federal law on emergency room treatment guidelines that preempts state laws, Biden told reporters this month during a news conference, where he expanded on an executive order he signed.

Abortion is legal in Virginia, and the state does not have an anti-abortion law triggered by the Supreme Court's ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.

Democrats in Virginia, who control the state Senate, are vowing to block any attempts by Gov. Glenn Youngkin and his fellow Republicans to make abortion illegal in the state. But Republicans are only one vote away from controlling the Senate in the 2023 elections and already hold the House of Delegates.

“I’m proud to be a pro-life governor and plan to take every action I can to protect life,” Youngkin said in a statement after the Supreme Court's ruling was issued.

Since the Supreme Court's decision was released, Youngkin said he supports a 15-week ban on abortion in the state and has called on fellow Republicans in the Virginia General Assembly to pursue legislation in 2023 that would put the ban in place.

Fellow Republican, Del. Dave LaRock, who represents western Loudoun County in the House of Delegates, said "there is no room for compromise" on abortion at a July 11 anti-abortion rally in Leesburg.

In his speech, LaRock commended former President Donald Trump for appointing judges to the Supreme Court who voted to overturn Roe V. Wade.

"He has put in place a legacy for himself that over time will be rivaled by few, in any," LaRock said.

LaRock is urging Youngkin to pull funding from schools, including Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Virginia, unless they agree to stop performing abortions at their medical facilities.

“Taxpayers of Virginia should not be having their dollars sent to institutions that perform abortions,” LaRock told WTOP.

READ ALSO: Roe V. Wade Overturned: What It Means In Virginia

More than a dozen states had trigger laws scheduled to take effect immediately or soon after the court struck down Roe v. Wade — the landmark 1973 decision that guaranteed the right to abortion. They and any other laws states might pass are preempted by The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTALA, Biden administration officials said.

It requires doctors at medical facilities to evaluate whether patients seeking treatment are in labor and determine if they have a health emergency or might develop one, and provide treatment accordingly.

“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,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said at the news conference. “Under the law, no matter where you live, women have the right to emergency care — including abortion care.”

Even the most stringent laws allow exceptions when the mother’s life is in danger, but there’s still confusion among physicians regarding how they can treat conditions such as ectopic pregnancy, hypertension and preeclampsia.

“Providers are mystified right now about what they can and can’t do,” NARAL Pro-Choice America President Mini Timmaraju told Politico, citing reports she has heard of patients being turned away.

In a letter to physicians Monday, Becerra said it is “critical” that physicians and other qualified medical personnel understand they have a “legal duty” to perform or induce an abortion by medication if that is medically necessary to save a mother’s life.

“If a physician believes that a pregnant patient presenting at an emergency department is experiencing an emergency medical condition as defined by EMTALA, and that abortion is the stabilizing treatment necessary to resolve that condition, the physician must provide that treatment,” Becerra said in a letter to health care providers Monday.

“When a state law prohibits abortion and does not include an exception for the life of the pregnant person — or draws the exception more narrowly than EMTALA’s emergency medical condition definition — that state law is preempted.”

Doctors who don’t intervene in such medical crises and the hospitals where they practice could be fined, he said. Hospitals could also lose their Medicare status.

Biden administration officials emphasized policy hasn’t changed, and they were merely reminding doctors and health care providers of their obligations under federal law, The Associated Press reported.

There’s little Biden can do at the federal level to restore abortion rights, which the Supreme Court sent back to the states to decide with its June 24 ruling striking down Roe v. Wade. There isn’t enough support in the Senate to codify abortion rights.