The World According to Jeff

EMTALA: Only Now?

The Emergency Medical Treatment And Labor Act (EMTALA) is a 1986 law that requires hospitals to treat any patients that present with a life-threatening condition, regardless of their apparent ability to pay.

It specifies explicitly what must happen in certain cases, including that of a pregnant woman.

Federal law always supercedes state law, and states cannot make any laws to "block" federal law.

To wit:

"If a physician believes that a pregnant patient presenting at an emergency department is experiencing an emergency medical condition as defined by EMTALA, and that abortion is the stabilizing treatment necessary to resolve that condition, the physician must provide that treatment," the agency's guidance states. "When a state law prohibits abortion and does not include an exception for the life of the pregnant person - or draws the exception more narrowly than EMTALA's emergency medical condition definition - that state law is preempted."

The department said emergency conditions include "ectopic pregnancy, complications of pregnancy loss, or emergent hypertensive disorders, such as preeclampsia with severe features."

They CANNOT let a woman die.

UPDATE: The DOJ has brought a lawsuit against Idaho to stop their illegally strict proposed abortion limits.