They refused an emergency abortion to a woman with serious complications. Two US hospitals that broke the law have been called to order, the Department of Health said on Monday. The Ministry hopes that this action will “clarify” the situation in the context of the political and legal dispute over abortion in the United States.
Despite restrictive abortion laws passed by some states, women’s emergency care responsibilities must be respected, Health Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a letter to representative hospital organizations. In recent months, press articles have multiplied on the story of women who failed to benefit from abortion despite the doomed fetus.
Obligation to treat a person in a medical emergency
Some doctors fear criminal prosecution for an abortion deemed illegal in their state. The two hospitals affected by the action announced Monday are located in Missouri and Kansas, two neighboring states located in the center of the United States. A patient, 18 weeks pregnant, visited these two facilities after a premature rupture of the water bag, the minister’s letter describes. She was then told that her pregnancy was no longer viable.
But doctors “told her they could not offer her any treatment that would prevent infection, bleeding and possibly death” because “hospital rules prohibit any treatment that could amount to an abortion,” explained Xavier Becerra. This is a “violation” of the law called EMTALA, he stressed. This law affects the hospitals of the federal health insurance fund Medicare – i.e. the majority – and obliges them to treat a person in a medical emergency.
“Fortunately, the patient survived”
The two hospitals have not been sanctioned but need to correct their actions, which is being checked by inspectors. The patient, Mylissa Farmer, was finally treated after hours of driving in Illinois, according to the National Women’s Law Center, which issued the alert on her case. She was then “full of labor and in a lot of pain,” the organization said in a statement. “Fortunately, the patient survived,” the minister said in a statement. “But she should never have endured this horrible ordeal. »
“Today we are sending out a reminder to Medicare participating hospitals: they have an obligation (…) to provide care to stabilize the condition of patients in medical emergencies,” he pounded. The Joe Biden administration has vowed to uphold abortion rights, which has come under renewed attack from conservatives since a US Supreme Court ruling in June 2022. every American state the freedom to legislate on this matter. Fifteen states have now made abortion illegal or severely restricted its access.