{"id":12729,"date":"2024-01-24T14:22:42","date_gmt":"2024-01-24T14:22:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=12729"},"modified":"2024-01-24T14:22:42","modified_gmt":"2024-01-24T14:22:42","slug":"the-fifth-circuit-just-made-it-even-more-dangerous-to-be-pregnant-in-a-red-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=12729","title":{"rendered":"The Fifth Circuit just made it even more dangerous to be pregnant in a red state"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\n“a notoriously right-wing federal appeals court<\/a> attempted to rewrite a federal law that, among other things, requires most US hospitals<\/a> to provide abortions to patients who are experiencing a medical emergency if a doctor determines that an abortion<\/a> will stabilize the patient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The case is Texas v. Becerra<\/em><\/a>, and all three of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit\u2019s judges who joined this opinion were appointed by Republicans. Two, including Kurt Engelhardt, the opinion\u2019s author, were appointed by former President Donald Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The case involves the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act<\/a> (EMTALA), a federal statute requiring hospitals that accept Medicare funds to provide \u201csuch treatment as may be required to stabilize the medical condition\u201d of \u201cany individual\u201d who arrives at the hospital\u2019s ER with an \u201cemergency medical condition.\u201d (In limited circumstances, the hospital may transfer the patient to a different facility that will provide this stabilizing treatment.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EMTALA contains no carve-out for abortion. It simply states that, whenever any patient arrives at a Medicare-funded hospital with a medical emergency, the hospital must offer that patient whatever treatment is necessary to \u201cstabilize the medical condition\u201d that caused the emergency. So, if a patient\u2019s emergency condition can only be stabilized by an abortion, federal law requires nearly all hospitals to provide that treatment. (Hospitals can opt out of EMTALA by not taking Medicare funds but, because Medicare funds health care<\/a> for elderly Americans, very few hospitals do opt out.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This federal law, moreover, also states that it overrides (or \u201cpreempts,\u201d to use the appropriate legal term) state and local laws \u201cto the extent that the [state law] directly conflicts with a requirement of this section<\/a>.\u201d So, in states with sweeping abortion bans that prohibit some or all medically necessary abortions, the state law must give way to EMTALA\u2019s requirement that all patients must be offered whatever treatment is necessary to stabilize their condition.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“when an emergency room patient presents with a life-threatening illness or condition \u2014 or, in the words of the EMTALA statute, that patient has a condition that places their health \u201cin serious jeopardy,\u201d that threatens \u201cserious impairment to bodily functions,\u201d or \u201cserious dysfunction of any bodily organ or part\u201d \u2014 then Medicare-funded hospitals must provide whatever treatment is necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Texas <\/em>case, in other words, asks whether a state government can force a woman to die, or suffer lasting injury to her uterus or other reproductive organs, because the state\u2019s lawmakers are so opposed to abortion that they will not permit it, even when such an abortion is required by federal law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet, despite the fact that the EMTALA statute is unambiguous, and despite the fact that this case only involves patients whose life or health is threatened by a pregnancy, three Fifth Circuit judges told those patients that they have no right to potentially lifesaving medical care.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.vox.com\/scotus\/2024\/1\/3\/24023889\/abortion-supreme-court-emtala-fifth-circuit-texas-becerra<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“a notoriously right-wing federal appeals court attempted to rewrite a federal law that, among other things, requires most US hospitals to provide abortions to patients who are experiencing a medical emergency if a doctor determines that an abortion will stabilize the patient.
\nThe case is Texas v. Becerra, and all three of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit\u2019s judges who joined this opinion were appointed by Republicans. Two, including Kurt Engelhardt, the opinion\u2019s author, were appointed by former President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

The case involves the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), a federal statute requiring hospitals that accept Medicare funds to provide \u201csuch treatment as may be required to stabilize the medical condition\u201d of \u201cany individual\u201d who arrives at the hospital\u2019s ER with an \u201cemergency medical condition.\u201d (In limited circumstances, the hospital may transfer the patient to a different facility that will provide this stabilizing treatment.)<\/p>\n

EMTALA contains no carve-out for abortion. It simply states that, whenever any patient arrives at a Medicare-funded hospital with a medical emergency, the hospital must offer that patient whatever treatment is necessary to \u201cstabilize the medical condition\u201d that caused the emergency. So, if a patient\u2019s emergency condition can only be stabilized by an abortion, federal law requires nearly all hospitals to provide that treatment. (Hospitals can opt out of EMTALA by not taking Medicare funds but, because Medicare funds health care for elderly Americans, very few hospitals do opt out.)<\/p>\n

This federal law, moreover, also states that it overrides (or \u201cpreempts,\u201d to use the appropriate legal term) state and local laws \u201cto the extent that the [state law] directly conflicts with a requirement of this section.\u201d So, in states with sweeping abortion bans that prohibit some or all medically necessary abortions, the state law must give way to EMTALA\u2019s requirement that all patients must be offered whatever treatment is necessary to stabilize their condition.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“when an emergency room patient presents with a life-threatening illness or condition \u2014 or, in the words of the EMTALA statute, that patient has a condition that places their health \u201cin serious jeopardy,\u201d that threatens \u201cserious impairment to bodily functions,\u201d or \u201cserious dysfunction of any bodily organ or part\u201d \u2014 then Medicare-funded hospitals must provide whatever treatment is necessary.<\/p>\n

The Texas case, in other words, asks whether a state government can force a woman to die, or suffer lasting injury to her uterus or other reproductive organs, because the state\u2019s lawmakers are so opposed to abortion that they will not permit it, even when such an abortion is required by federal law.<\/p>\n

And yet, despite the fact that the EMTALA statute is unambiguous, and despite the fact that this case only involves patients whose life or health is threatened by a pregnancy, three Fifth Circuit judges told those patients that they have no right to potentially lifesaving medical care.”<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.vox.com\/scotus\/2024\/1\/3\/24023889\/abortion-supreme-court-emtala-fifth-circuit-texas-becerra<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[521,790,1213,52,19,1098],"class_list":["post-12729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-abortion","tag-courts","tag-judiciary","tag-pregnancy","tag-pregnant","tag-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12729"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12730,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12729\/revisions\/12730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}