The US Supreme Court is set to rule later this year on whether the federal government can force hospital Emergency Department doctors to carry out abortions.
Under the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act doctors in hospital emergency rooms are required to stabilise patients with medical care. CBN News reports the Biden administration argues this edict should also include terminations, even in states where the procedure is banned.
Under the law, hospitals that receive Medicare funds must provide emergency medical care. The Justice Department has argued that abortions can fall under emergency medical care so health care providers should perform them. The central question for the Supreme Court justices is what constitutes a medical emergency need for an abortion? Lack of clarity on the issue concerns both women and doctors, including some in the pro-life community.
“We’re talking about elective abortions being forced on doctors to perform them by a federal fiat,” said Roger Severino, Vice President at conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation. He told CBN News that deliberate misinformation surrounds the law. “There are some circumstances where you do have conditions where the life of the mother is at risk and doctors are still able in every pro-life state to save the life of the mother, even if it incidentally results in the loss tragically of an unborn child. That’s not what we’re talking about here,” he explained.
The current case arose after a federal appeals court in Texas recently ruled that emergency doctors are not required to carry out terminations. That decision related to numerous lawsuits being filed by women in American states where abortion has been restricted or banned. The women claimed they were denied the procedure despite having dangerous complications in their pregnancy, putting their lives at risk.
CBN News writes: “While states with abortion bans typically allow for exceptions if the mother’s life is in danger, experts say it’s not clear when those exceptions can be applied.” Dr. Susan Bane, a board member of the American Association of Pro-life Obstetricians and Gynecologists told the news outlet that such clarification is vital. “It is the responsibility of hospital systems and the legal system to make sure that doctors and health care practitioners really understand the law because we’re not attorneys,” she asserted.
Mr. Severino argues that abortion activists are using the issue to spread fear among pregnant women with health challenges. “It’s politically convenient for the left that is very pro-abortion to try to scare people. There are so many instances of pro-life doctors who are out there saying: Look, we do this all the time, or OB-GYNs. We know the tough cases.”
Dr. Bane insisted: “When we intervene for medical emergencies, we can do it without an abortion. We can separate the mum and the baby, but our intention is to hopefully have two living individuals when we’re done.”
She added that today’s politically charged environment also makes decisions challenging for any doctor. “We’ve really seen a movement in our profession of OB-GYN to where instead of doing our jobs of taking care of both (mother and baby), the answer to any risk factor is Go ahead and induce an abortion to eliminate the risk factor. And I’m like: Time Out.”
Mr. Severino pointed out that abortion training is now required for many medical students. “This is a sad thing. Now, we see this in medical schools where the accrediting bodies are saying: You have to train in abortion to get a medical license. Students are being forced to assist in these abortions. They’re trying to move it from instead of being an opt-in to being an opt-out to pressure medical students to do abortions when the overwhelming majority of the profession went into medicine to save lives, not to end lives.”
With a US Supreme Court ruling expected later this year, Dr. Bane and others in the pro-life movement are cautiously optimistic. “As an obstetrician and gynecologist, I care for two patients. I care for both a maternal and a fetal patient and the health and well-being of both of those patients matter. So, it’s really important that our laws, that our regulations lead to policies that will protect both of those patients,” she said.
