The Trump administration rescinded Biden-era guidance that explicitly required emergency rooms to provide abortions to pregnant patients if such care would save their lives. Medical experts expect the policy shift to sow chaos in hospitals and endanger pregnant people throughout the U.S.

In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s move to overturn Roe v. Wade, the Biden administration issued guidance related to the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, or EMTALA, a federal law that requires health care providers that take Medicare to provide “stabilizing” medical treatment to all patients experiencing medical emergencies.

In a 2022 letter to health care providers, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Beccerra wrote that if a doctor believes a pregnant patient at an emergency room “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.” The memo also clarified that EMTALA preempts state law in cases where abortion is illegal with exceptions narrower than those in EMTALA.

In a press release Tuesday, the Trump administration rescinded the older guidance, stating that the previous rules “do not reflect the policy of this Administration.”

The release noted that Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services “will work to rectify any perceived legal confusion and instability created by the former administration’s actions.”

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