{"id":1551702,"date":"2022-07-13T07:50:37","date_gmt":"2022-07-13T11:50:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1551702"},"modified":"2022-07-13T07:51:00","modified_gmt":"2022-07-13T11:51:00","slug":"biden-admins-new-hhs-guidance-shoehorns-unfettered-abortion-into-existing-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-admins-new-hhs-guidance-shoehorns-unfettered-abortion-into-existing-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden Admin\u2019s New HHS Guidance Shoehorns Unfettered Abortion Into Existing Law"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fbiden-admins-new-hhs-guidance-shoehorns-unfettered-abortion-into-existing-law%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1551702&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/51898067773_7604ec1826_o-scaled-1.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>The Biden administration\u2019s \u201cnew guidance\u201d to hospitals declaring that abortions must be provided in emergencies seeks not to clarify the law but to provide pro-abortion forces a way to skirt state law while pushing several lies to further the false narrative that overturning <em>Roe v. Wade <\/em>endangers women\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n<p>In a Monday <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hhs.gov\/about\/news\/2022\/07\/11\/following-president-bidens-executive-order-protect-access-reproductive-health-care-hhs-announces-guidance-clarify-that-emergency-medical-care-includes-abortion-services.html\">press release<\/a>, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that through its Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), it had issued what it called \u201cclarifying guidance on the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA)\u201d on \u201cabortion services in emergency situations.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Congress passed the EMTALA in 1986 \u201cto ensure public access to emergency services regardless of ability to pay,\u201d by imposing \u201cspecific obligations on Medicare-participating hospitals that offer emergency services.\u201d Specifically, under the EMTALA, a medical facility that runs an emergency room \u2014 which is not all health care facilities \u2014 must \u201cprovide a medical screening examination (MSE) when a request is made for examination or treatment for an emergency medical condition (EMC), including active labor, regardless of an individual\u2019s ability to pay.\u201d The law then requires hospitals \u201cto provide stabilizing treatment for patients with EMCs,\u201d with a hospital that \u201cis unable to stabilize a patient within its capability\u201d arranging a transfer to another facility.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The press release issued on Monday announced that HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra had written to health care providers in conjunction with the CMA\u2019s issuances of a new memorandum purporting to explain the mandates of EMTALA \u201cin light of the Supreme Court\u2019s decision in <em>Dobbs v. Jackson Women\u2019s Health Organization.<\/em>\u201d <\/p>\n<p>After providing a quick summary of the EMTALA, the CMA memorandum noted that \u201can emergency medical condition may include a condition that is likely or certain to become emergent without stabilizing treatment\u201d and that \u201cemergency medical conditions involving pregnant patients may include, but are not limited to, ectopic pregnancy, complications of pregnancy loss, or emergent hypertensive disorders, such as preeclampsia with severe features.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf 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,\u201d the memorandum continued. The memorandum then concluded: \u201cWhen a state law prohibits abortion and does not include an exception for the life of the pregnant person \u2014 or draws the exception more narrowly than EMTALA\u2019s emergency medical condition definition \u2014 that state law is preempted.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While federal law clearly \u201cpreempts\u201d or overrides conflicting state laws because of the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, the CMS memorandum proves problematic for several reasons. But before dissecting the many problems with the memorandum, it is important to highlight the deceptive bait-and-switch Becerra effected in purporting to summarize the memorandum and the EMTALA\u2019s mandates in the letter he dispatched to health care professionals on Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStabilizing treatment could include medical and\/or surgical interventions (e.g., abortion, removal of one or both fallopian tubes, anti-hypertensive therapy, methotrexate therapy etc.), irrespective of any state laws or mandates that apply to specific procedures,\u201d Becerra wrote. <\/p>\n<p>He continued: \u201cThus, if a physician believes that a pregnant patient presenting at an emergency department, including certain labor and delivery departments, 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.\u201d Significantly, Becerra then declared that \u201cwhen a state law prohibits abortion and does not include an exception for the life and <strong><em>health<\/em><\/strong> of the pregnant person \u2014 or draws the exception more narrowly than EMTALA\u2019s emergency medical condition definition \u2014 that state law is preempted\u201d (Emphasis added).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As the above excerpt shows, Becerra added the word \u201chealth\u201d to the language of the CMS memorandum, which speaks instead to \u201cexceptions for the life of the pregnant [woman].\u201d And that sleight-of-hand is telling to those well-versed in the rhetoric of abortion apologists and their ability to squeeze an elephant into the \u201chealth\u201d mouse hole, with \u201cphysical, emotional, psychological, familial and the woman\u2019s age,\u201d all framed as \u201crelevant factors\u201d to assess the effects of pregnancy on a woman\u2019s \u201chealth,\u201d leaving \u201chealth\u201d to mean anything.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Donna Harrison, an OB\/GYN and the CEO for the Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG), told The Federalist, \u201cThe AAPLOG is concerned that by using the ambiguous word \u2018health\u2019 that the Biden administration is trying to use EMTALA to force the performance of abortions in situations which are not medical emergencies.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe will be closely monitoring the interpretation of this guidance document,\u201d Harrison added.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond the apparent attempt by Becerra to expand the preemptive force of the EMTALA to situations in which it does not apply, the memorandum itself pushes several <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/06\/29\/no-dobbs-doesnt-stop-doctors-from-treating-ectopic-pregnancies-or-miscarriages\/\">fallacies<\/a> being peddled by abortion apologists since the <em>Dobbs<\/em> decision dropped, such as that with <em>Roe <\/em>overturned, women will no longer receive life-saving health care in the case of an ectopic pregnancy or miscarriage. The CMS memorandum and Becerra\u2019s letter reinforce these false narratives by, in purporting to address the EMTALA\u2019s requirements in light of state abortion laws, including a discussion of the treatment of \u201cectopic pregnancy\u201d and \u201ccomplications of pregnancy loss.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But the medical treatment of ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages are not abortions. Elizabeth Kirk, the director of the Center for Law &#038; the Human Person at the Columbus School of Law at the Catholic University of America, and Dr. Ingrid Skop, an obstetrician-gynecologist and director of medical affairs at the Charlotte Lozier Institute, corrected those misconceptions in an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scotusblog.com\/2022\/07\/why-the-dobbs-decision-wont-imperil-pregnancy-related-medical-care\/\">article<\/a> for SCOTUSblog\u2019s symposium on <em>Dobbs<\/em>, \u201cWhy the <em>Dobbs<\/em> Decision Won\u2019t Imperil Pregnancy-Related Medical Care.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.scotusblog.com\/2022\/07\/why-the-dobbs-decision-wont-imperil-pregnancy-related-medical-care\/\">Medical treatment<\/a> of a pregnant mother and her child seeks to protect the life and health of both patients, where possible,\u201d they explained. \u201cIn contrast, the purpose of abortion is to cause the death of one of the patients, namely the unborn child. An abortion procedure is not the same thing as treatment for an ectopic pregnancy or miscarriage management, which even Planned Parenthood admits.\u201d With an ectopic pregnancy, which is a pregnancy outside of the uterus, the medical \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.scotusblog.com\/2022\/07\/why-the-dobbs-decision-wont-imperil-pregnancy-related-medical-care\/\">indication and interventions<\/a> \u2026 versus elective abortion are vastly different.\u201d In fact, \u201cmifepristone and misoprostol, used commonly to provide medical abortions, specifically do not treat a pregnancy outside of the uterus, and deaths have occurred in women seeking abortion when this condition has not been first ruled out.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Further, while the treatments for miscarriage or pregnancy loss, may <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scotusblog.com\/2022\/07\/why-the-dobbs-decision-wont-imperil-pregnancy-related-medical-care\/\">sometimes<\/a> \u201cbe the same as those for abortion (e.g., dilation and suction or misoprostol or, uncommonly, a combination of mifepristone\/misoprostol), the purpose is vastly different, i.e., removing an already dead fetus versus causing the death of a fetus.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Likewise, the treatment of \u201cpreeclampsia with severe features,\u201d another example the HHS\u2019s supposed guidance suggests would justify an abortion, ignores the distinction between the treatment of the mother\u2019s medical condition and a procedure aimed at intentionally causing the death of the fetus. And because \u201cthe <a href=\"https:\/\/aaplog.org\/fact-checking-the-fact-checkers-abortionists-misrepresent-the-facts\/\">incidence<\/a> of pre-eclampsia with severe features \u2026 prior to viability is exceedingly rare,\u201d treating the mother\u2019s emergency medical condition will often allow physicians to save the child.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Similarly, abortion is not medically necessary to treat placenta previa, which \u201cis a condition in which the placenta covers the cervix, making a vaginal delivery impossible due to the possibility of life-threatening hemorrhage if labor occurs.\u201d As AAPLOG has <a href=\"https:\/\/aaplog.org\/fact-checking-the-fact-checkers-abortionists-misrepresent-the-facts\/\">detailed<\/a>, placenta previa \u201care frequently diagnosed in pregnancy on ultrasound around 20 weeks, however approximately 90% of these will resolve on their own before delivery.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>But \u201cif significant hemorrhage occurs due to a placenta previa (which again is so rare prior to viability that no incidence is even reported), the patient should be taken for an emergency C-section which is the most expedient way to get her bleeding under control.\u201d In fact, \u201cit would be medically dangerous and irresponsible to try to do an abortion since any instrumentation through the cervix would pierce the placenta and cause immediate massive bleeding.\u201d Further, \u201can abortion would take significantly longer in this case and be much risker for the mother.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Given these medical facts and the legal reality that states that prohibit abortion clearly define it as procedures that intentionally cause the death of an unborn child, and therefore treating ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages are not abortions, the laws already make clear that an abortion ban is not a ban on providing life-saving medical treatment to pregnant women even if it results in the death of a fetus.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Health care providers know this, and Becerra and the CMS know that they know this, but the letter and memorandum serve other goals of the pro-abortion Biden administration, including: providing abortion-oriented medical facilities with a basis to skirt state law by framing an elective abortion as mandated by EMTALA; pushing misinformation to the public concerning the treatment of ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages; misrepresenting the medical need for an abortion to preserve the life of the mother; misrepresenting state abortion laws to create the false impression that abortion bans prohibit doctors from treating women\u2019s emergency medical conditions; and creating a political talking point that <em>Dobbs <\/em>puts women\u2019s lives at risk based on the strawman crafted by the administration.<\/p>\n<p>But at the end of the day, the strawman constructed by HHS easily collapses when one remembers that the goal of an abortion is a dead baby, while the goal of treating a pregnant woman with a serious health condition is to save the mother and, if possible, deliver her baby alive.\u00a0<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Margot Cleveland is The Federalist&#8217;s senior legal correspondent. She is also a contributor to National Review Online, the Washington Examiner, Aleteia, and Townhall.com, and has been published in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. <\/p>\n<p>Cleveland is a lawyer and a graduate of the Notre Dame Law School, where she earned the Hoynes Prize\u2014the law school\u2019s highest honor. She later served for nearly 25 years as a permanent law clerk for a federal appellate judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Cleveland is a former full-time university faculty member and now teaches as an adjunct from time to time. <\/p>\n<p>As a stay-at-home homeschooling mom of a young son with cystic fibrosis, Cleveland frequently writes on cultural issues related to parenting and special-needs children. Cleveland is on Twitter at @ProfMJCleveland. The views expressed here are those of Cleveland in her private capacity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Biden administration\u2019s \u201cnew guidance\u201d to hospitals declaring that abortions must be provided in emergencies seeks not to clarify the law but to provide pro-abortion forces a way to skirt<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":499,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1551702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1551702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/499"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1551702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1551702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1551702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1551702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1551702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}