9-30-2024 12:38am

Per Senator Martin Heinrich every patient has the basic right to emergency health care, including abortion care, regardless of where they live.

Chris Edwards Editor

U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) joined his colleagues to introduce a resolution expressing the sense of the Senate that every patient has the basic right to emergency health care, including abortion care, regardless of where they live. The introduction comes as new reporting from ProPublica makes clear that Republican abortion bans are preventing women from receiving lifesaving emergency health care and resulting in preventable deaths.

"Since the radical Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, one in three women live in a state that bans or severely restricts access to reproductive healthcare. And now, women are dying because of these extreme laws. It is unconscionable, and worst of all, preventable,” said Heinrich. “Nobody should be left to pay the price for the Republican abortion bans. I will never stop fighting to restore the right to abortion under federal law and protect women’s freedoms to control their own bodies and make the decisions best for her life, family, and future.”

Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade over two years ago, nearly two dozen US states led by Republicans have passed, banned, or severely restricted access to abortion. These strict laws have created confusion around the treatment doctors can provide even when a pregnant patient’s life is in danger, as physicians fear that they may lose their medical license, be sued, or even charged with a felony if they perform life-saving emergency care. Despite the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act’s (EMTALA) requirements that Medicare-participating hospitals treat and stabilize pregnant patients in need of emergency medical care, women are being turned away from emergency rooms following the Dobbs decision.

In Moyle v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court had the opportunity to reaffirm that federal law requires pregnant patients to have access to life-saving emergency care in every state, but instead, the Court dismissed the case and sent it back to the lower courts, effectively punting on making a decision on the case itself. While the litigation continues in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the health and lives of women remain at risk as uncertainty around emergency abortion care persists. 121 Congressional Republicans, including 26 Senators, filed an amicus briefarguing that EMTALA does not require hospitals to provide abortion care as emergency stabilizing care in order tosave a patient’s life.

In addition to Heinrich, the resolution was led by U.S. Senators Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and cosponsored by Senators Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), LaphonzaButler (D-Calif.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), George Helmy (D-N.J.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Angus King (I-Maine), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.).

The resolution is endorsed by Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Center for Reproductive Rights, In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda, Reproductive Freedom For All (formerly NARAL Pro-Choice America), American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, National Women’s Law Center, Physicians for Reproductive Health, Power to Decide, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, Guttmacher Institute, National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association, All* Above All, National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum, URGE: Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity, National Council of Jewish Women, and National Partnership for Women and Families.

The full text of the resolution can be read here.