Murray, Rosen, Baldwin, and Wyden Introduce Resolution: “Every Woman Has the Right to Emergency Health Care”

Press Release

Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee (HELP), introduced 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. Senators Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), and Ron Wyden (D-OR) co-led introduction of the resolution. The introduction comes as new reporting from ProPublica makes plain that Republican abortion bans are preventing women from receiving lifesaving emergency health care and resulting in preventable deaths.

“I introduced this resolution alongside my colleagues to simply reaffirm the basic principle that when you go to the ER, doctors should be allowed to treat you, and when you need emergency care—including abortion care—no politician should stop you from getting it,” said Senator Murray. “Yet here in America, in the 21st century, pregnant women die—not because doctors don’t know how to save them, but because doctors don’t know if Republicans will let them. Democrats will keep pressing to fully restore reproductive freedoms for every woman in America and we will continue to put a white-hot spotlight on the devastating, deadly fallout of Donald Trump’s abortion bans.”

Since the overturn 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 brief arguing that EMTALA does not require hospitals to provide abortion care as emergency stabilizing care in order to save a patient’s life.

In addition to Senators Murray, Rosen, Baldwin, and Wyden the resolution is cosponsored by Senators Schumer, Bennet, Blumenthal, Booker, Butler, Cantwell, Cardin, Carper, Casey, Coons, Cortez Masto, Duckworth, Durbin, Fetterman, Gillibrand, Hassan, Heinrich, Helmy, Hirono, Kaine, King, Klobuchar, Merkley, Padilla, Peters, Reed, Sanders, Schatz, Shaheen, Smith, Stabenow, Van Hollen, Warner, Warnock, Warren, Welch, Whitehouse.

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.

Last week, U.S. Representatives Emilia Sykes (D-OH-13) and Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ-11) introduced the House companion to today’s Senate resolution.

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