The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says an Oklahoma hospital did not violate federal law when doctors told a woman with a nonviable pregnancy to wait in the parking lot until her condition worsened enough to qualify for an abortion under the state’s strict ban.
Jaci Statton, 26, was among several women last year who challenged abortion restrictions that went into effect in Republican-led states after the Supreme Court revoked the nationwide right to abortion in 2022.
Rather than join a lawsuit, Statton filed a complaint with the Department of Health and Human Services under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTALA. The complaint came a little more than a year after Biden’s administration informed hospitals that they must provide abortion services if the mother’s life is at risk. At the time, President Joe Biden’s administration said EMTALA supersedes state abortion bans that don’t have adequate exceptions for medical emergencies.
The Biden administration’s denial of Statton’s claim is the latest development in the ongoing scrutiny over how to apply EMTALA in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade. It also underscores the uphill legal battle reproductive rights advocates when pushing back against state abortion bans.
We don’t have enough information. Of course, morally, a non viable pregnancy should be terminated ASAP due to the possibility of complications. But EMTALA deals with emergent situations. So legally, without someone telling us what her medical state was at the time, it’s all very gray area. A partial molar pregnancy does usually miscarry on its own (it is non viable). But the longer it goes on, the worse the long term effects can be on the mother. So again, morally the choice is clear. Legally the hospital was in a gray area and chose to protect itself from Christian Theocrats who would use the power of the state to punish them and damage healthcare for many other people.