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A compromise on emergency abortions that red states should embrace

7 5
09.02.2025

It is time for states that have banned abortion to put an end to the horror stories of women being refused emergency medical treatment when their pregnancies go terribly wrong. The states can do this in a perhaps surprising way — by tweaking a solution that the Biden administration proposed.

When I ask my anti-abortion friends about these situations, they become unhappy. They don’t know how to respond. They are decent people who don’t mean to hurt anyone, and in these cases — a ruptured amniotic sac, a bleeding placenta and the like — the fetus is going to die anyway. It makes no sense to endanger a woman’s life or health in order to keep the fetus alive for a few more hours.

With Trump back in power, pro-lifers have the ability to protect these women — without opening the door to any non-emergency abortions. They are in charge. They can draft the regulations. Will they?

The Biden administration invoked the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, which requires that, when a patient has an “emergency medical condition,” the hospital must “stabilize” them, assuring that the patient’s condition won’t worsen when they’re discharged or transferred.

It sensibly proposed that this creates an obligation to end a woman’s pregnancy when faced with disaster. EMTALA creates a safe harbor for the emergency cases while preserving those bans........

© The Hill