Emergency Abortions Denied by Hospitals Violated Law, Say Feds

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Government investigations have recently discovered that two hospitals did something very wrong. They refused to help a pregnant woman who was having preterm labor, which put her in danger. In other words, these hospitals broke the law.

Big Big News found out that a lot of states have laws about abortion which makes it hard for hospitals to know what to do when a person’s health is in danger. This all started last year when the Supreme Court took away everyone’s right to get an abortion. So now different states are having lots of different reactions to this decision.

The Biden administration has stated that medical professionals must give a pregnant person an abortion if their life is at risk. Missouri is now investigating a hospital’s refusal to give an emergency abortion. According to federal law, all doctors are required to treat patients in dangerous situations – even if the state laws say otherwise.

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said that this patient was lucky to have survived, but should not have gone through such a scary situation. He also said that the government will try their best to protect people’s lives and health, as well as investigate and do whatever the courts order them to do.

A government agency is investigating 2 hospitals. In August, they refused to terminate the pregnancy of a Missouri woman who was 17 weeks pregnant and whose water had broken early. The doctors said that her baby would not survive, that she was in danger of getting a serious infection or losing her uterus, and yet still wouldn’t help because there was still a heartbeat.

Farmer had to go to an abortion clinic in Illinois which made her feel scared, powerless and dehumanized. She felt like she needed to do something and say something so that no other woman would experience what she went through.

Recently, numerous farmers have been speaking up about getting denied abortions at hospitals. Even though their doctors said that it was dangerous and risky for them to not have an abortion, they were still turned away. This has upset people so much that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (also known as CMS) decided to look into the matter.

President Joe Biden’s administration has told hospitals they should not refuse to help patients needing an abortion, even if local laws say it is not allowed. After the Supreme Court’s decision, the Democratic administration said that federal law requires hospitals to do an abortion when a pregnant woman is in danger because of an emergency medical condition. The government can check up on hospitals that get money from the Medicare and Medicaid programs – which means almost all the hospitals in the U.S. – to make sure they follow federal law.

Abortions are mostly not allowed in Missouri except for medical emergencies. In Kansas, when Farmer visited the hospital, it was still legal to do abortions up until 22 weeks of pregnancy. We don’t know why the University of Kansas Health did not allow Farmer to have an abortion. Neither hospital said anything about this case.

The government (CMS) did not punish the two hospitals but told them that they were breaking the law. They asked the hospitals to fix what caused Farmer to be rejected. Someone from the federal Medicare office will check if the problem was fixed before ending the investigation.

It’s not likely that hospitals and doctors will be willing to provide abortions in states where they will face going to prison or being fined heavily if they terminate a pregnancy, said Mary Ziegler, who is a professor at the University of California, Davis.

Ziegler said that their approach might not be very effective. If a doctor takes care of someone, they could even end up in trouble with the law. This would discourage doctors from helping others and make them turn patients away.

Doctors around the country don’t know how to give care for expecting mothers, especially in the 20 states that passed laws banning or limiting medical help. In some of those states, doctors could even get punished if they perform an abortion.

Monday, the Attorney General sent a letter to hospitals and doctors’ associations to help figure out if they are following the federal law called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA).

Recently, some laws in different states have changed, but the federal law requiring health care professionals to provide necessary treatment, including abortion care, when someone has a medical emergency still stays the same. If you want to stay up to date with news about abortion, visit https://bigbignews.net/abortion.