WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats tried to pass a resolution Tuesday on access to abortion in medical emergencies, but Republicans blocked it from moving forward.
The move comes after months of unsuccessful attempts by Democrats in Congress to approve legislation addressing a variety of reproductive rights, including access to contraception and in vitro fertilization.
Senator Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington, said Tuesday she introduced a resolution aimed at clarifying what Congress intended decades ago when lawmakers approved the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, or EMTALA.
“We want to make clear that it is the intent of Congress to ensure that women can get life-saving care when they go to an emergency room anywhere in this country,” Murray said.
Oklahoma Republican Senator James Lankford blocked Murray’s unanimous consent motion to approve the resolution, saying emergency room doctors can operate in cases of miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy and life-threatening situations.
“It’s a false claim that somehow what happened in the Dobbs decision and what’s happening in the states is limiting this,” Lankford said. “It’s really political rhetoric that’s making people afraid.”
Lankford in March objected to Murray’s subsequent unanimous consent request, blocking the approval of legislation which would expand access to in vitro fertilization for soldiers and veterans.
No voice recorded
Unanimous consent is the fastest way to approve legislative items in the Senate. Under this process, any senator can ask for approval of a bill or resolution, and any senator can object. There is no recorded vote that puts all senators on the record.
Murray two page resolutionwhich had the support of 40 cosponsors, would express “the Senate’s view that every person has a fundamental right to emergency health care, including abortion.”
The resolution also states that “state laws that purport to prohibit and restrict emergency abortions force health care providers to decide between withholding necessary, stable medical care for a patient in a medical emergency or facing criminal penalties, putting patients’ lives, health, and futures at risk.”
This resolution would not actually change the text of EMTALA.
A 1986 law requires hospital emergency departments to treat or transfer patients with medical emergencies regardless of their health insurance status or ability to pay.
It defines a medical emergency as one that could place a patient’s health in “serious jeopardy,” such as when a patient “experiences a serious impairment of a bodily function or a serious dysfunction of any organ or part of the body.”
Dobbs’ decision
The federal law has been at the center of political and legal debate since the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated the constitutional right to abortion two years ago in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
Biden Administration issued a public letter Shortly thereafter, EMTALA was found to protect physicians and other qualified health care providers who terminated a pregnancy to stabilize a patient if her life or health was in danger.
Republican attorneys general in several states challenged that interpretation of the law, and the U.S. Department of Justice later sued Idaho over its abortion law.
The case went to the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year, but the justices ultimately decided send it back to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The Supreme Court said it should have waited until the lower court issued a ruling to consider the case.
At the heart of the dispute between Republican state attorneys general and the Biden administration is the view that federal law applies when a pregnant patient’s life or health is at risk; many conservative state laws allow abortions only after a certain gestational age when a woman’s life is at risk.
When a woman’s life becomes threatened due to complications during pregnancy, dozens of stories have emerged from women across the country who say they had to wait for treatment until their health deteriorated further.
Associated Press Analysis released in August it was found that more than 100 women who experienced health problems during pregnancy had been turned away from hospitals or treated poorly in the past two years.
ProPublica recently obtained reports “confirm that at least two women have already died after being unable to access legal abortions and timely medical care in their state.”
“This cruelty is unforgivable and unacceptable”
The Senate resolution rejected by Republicans on Tuesday is almost identical to the resolution passed by House Democrats. It was introduced at the beginning of this month.
Murray said before filing her UC motion that women and their families would not forget about being denied health care because of state restrictions on abortion access enacted by Republicans.
“No woman will ever forget being sent to have a miscarriage by herself after her doctor said, ‘Look, I know your life is in danger, but I’m not sure I can save you now,’” Murray said. “No husband will forget calling 911 in a panic after finding his wife bloodied and unconscious. No child will forget, not for a day of its life, the mother who was taken away by Republican abortion bans.
“This atrocity is inexcusable and unacceptable. Democrats will not allow this to become the status quo.”
