Trump administration revokes guidance requiring hospitals to provide emergency abortions

By AMANDA SEITZ and GEOFF MULVIHILL WASHINGTON AP The Trump administration declared on Tuesday that it would revoke guidance to the nation s hospitals that directed them to provide exigency abortions for women when they are necessary to stabilize their healthcare condition Related Articles Pete Hegseth orders the name of gay rights activist Harvey Milk scrubbed from Navy ship Federal prisons must keep providing hormone therapy to transgender inmates a judge says The Trump administration is pushing therapy for transgender youth What does that look like Musk slams Trump s big tax bill as Republican senators race to meet a July th deadline Ex-Homeland Measure official Taylor fights back against Trump s unprecedented scrutiny order That guidance was issued to hospitals in weeks after the U S Supreme Court upended national abortion rights in the U S It was an effort by the Biden administration to preserve abortion access for extreme cases in which women were experiencing curative emergencies and needed an abortion to prevent organ loss or severe hemorrhaging among other serious complications The Biden administration had argued that hospitals including states with near-total bans needed to provide crisis abortions under the Crisis Biological Medication and Evolving Labor Act That law requires exigency rooms that receive Medicare dollars to provide an exam and stabilizing remedy for all patients Nearly all emergency rooms in the U S rely on Medicare funds The Trump administration released on Tuesday that it would no longer enforce that guidelines The move prompted concerns from certain doctors and abortion rights advocates that women will not get crisis abortions in states with strict bans The Trump Administration would rather women die in emergency rooms than receive life-saving abortions Nancy Northup president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights declared in a declaration In pulling back guidance this administration is feeding the fear and confusion that already exists at hospitals in every state where abortion is banned Hospitals need more guidance not less to stop them from turning away patients experiencing pregnancy crises Anti-abortion advocates praised the move however Marjorie Dannenfelser president of SBA Pro-Life America disclosed in a message that the Biden-era plan had been a way to expand abortion access in states where it was banned Democrats have created confusion on this fact to justify their extremely unpopular agenda for all-trimester abortion she stated In situations where every minute counts their lies lead to delayed care and put women in needless unacceptable danger An Associated Press probe last year exposed that even with the Biden administration s guidance dozens of pregnant women were being turned away from exigency rooms including selected who needed urgency abortions The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services which investigates hospitals that are not in compliance noted in a declaration that it will continue to enforce the federal law that including for identified emergency clinical conditions that place the robustness of a pregnant woman or her unborn child in serious jeopardy But CMS added that it would also rectify any perceived legal confusion and instability created by the former administration s actions The Biden administration sued Idaho over its abortion law that initially only allowed abortions to save the life of the mother The federal governing body had argued before the U S Supreme Court last year that Idaho s law was in conflict with the federal law which requires stabilizing medication that prevents a subject s condition from worsening The U S Supreme Court issued a procedural ruling in the episode last year that left key questions unanswered about whether doctors in abortion ban states can terminate pregnancies when a woman is at vulnerability of serious infection organ loss or hemorrhage