Senators Carper, Coons cosponsor resolution reaffirming access to emergency health care, including abortion care

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senators Tom Carper and Chris Coons (both D-Del.) joined a resolution led by Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.) today reaffirming that every patient has the basic right to emergency health care, including abortion care, regardless of where they live. The introduction comes as new reporting from ProPublica makes plain that Republican abortion bans are preventing women from receiving lifesaving emergency health care, resulting in preventable deaths.

"Every American, no matter where they live, deserves to receive the health care that they need," said Senator Carper. "Reproductive health care continues to be attacked all across our country. Women and their doctors, not politicians and judges, should make these private health care decisions."

"New reporting makes clear what many Americans have suspected: Women are dying because of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wadeand conservative states' Trumpian abortion bans," said Senator Coons. "Since the elimination of the federal right to an abortion, pregnant women who are in desperate need of medical attention are being turned away from emergency rooms, while doctors are afraid of being jailed for providing lifesaving care. I will fight tirelessly to protect emergency abortion care so that women don't have to take their lives into their own hands when becoming pregnant."

"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 U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago, nearly two-dozen Republican-led U.S. states have 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 lifesaving 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, pregnant people are being turned away from emergency rooms. New reporting by ProPublica this week reported on the death of Amber Furman, a Georgia woman who died of medical complications after failing to receive a routine medical procedure that doctors were afraid to carry out because of Georgia's new anti-abortion law.

This summer, 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 lifesaving 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 U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the health and lives of women remain at risk as uncertainty around emergency abortion care persists. One-hundred-and-twenty-one 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.

Alongside Senator Murray, U.S. Senators Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) co-led the introduction of the resolution. In addition to Senators Carper and Coons, this resolution is cosponsored by Senators Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.),George Helmy (D-N.J.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Angus King (I-Maine), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.).

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.

The House companion bill was introduced last week by U.S. Representatives Emilia Sykes (D-Ohio) and Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.).

The full text of the resolution can be read here.