{"id":1565765,"date":"2022-07-22T08:05:13","date_gmt":"2022-07-22T12:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1565765"},"modified":"2022-07-22T08:05:23","modified_gmt":"2022-07-22T12:05:23","slug":"in-the-wake-of-roes-demise-democrats-are-doing-all-they-can-to-thwart-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/in-the-wake-of-roes-demise-democrats-are-doing-all-they-can-to-thwart-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"In The Wake Of Roe\u2019s Demise, Democrats Are Doing All They Can To Thwart Democracy"},"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\">30<\/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%2Fin-the-wake-of-roes-demise-democrats-are-doing-all-they-can-to-thwart-democracy%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=1565765&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--><p>Democrats love to talk about democracy \u2014 mostly about how it\u2019s under threat from Republicans and \u201cChristian nationalists\u201d and anyone who opposes their agenda. But at least on a rhetorical level, they seem to love and cherish democracy and rightly think that a government of the people and by the people is the surest safeguard against tyranny.<\/p>\n<p>In practice, though, they hate democracy and will use every tool at their disposal to subvert and destroy it. Hardly a day goes by that Democrats don\u2019t proclaim as much by their actions. Just look at their response to the Supreme Court overturning\u00a0<em>Roe v. Wade\u00a0<\/em>last month, which triggered laws in more than a dozen states banning or placing new restrictions on abortion. Voters in those states elected the people who passed these new laws, which in some cases are broadly popular. By overturning\u00a0<em>Roe<\/em>, the court breathed new life into the democratic process, returning an issue to the American people that a previous Supreme Court had snatched away from them.<\/p>\n<p>But Democrats don\u2019t really want democracy when it comes to abortion. They prefer the raw exercise of executive power. This week, Attorney General Merrick Garland threatened to sue states that have outlawed or restricted abortion since the end of\u00a0<em>Roe<\/em>, and he also said the Justice Department would try to get a judge to toss\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.texasattorneygeneral.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/executive-management\/20220714_1-0_Original%20Complaint%20Biden%20Admin.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a Texas lawsuit<\/a>\u00a0that would block newly issued rules from the Biden administration\u2019s U.S. Department of Health and Human Services forcing doctors to perform abortions in emergency rooms.<\/p>\n<p>According to the Wall Street Journal, Garland\u2019s DOJ said last week it had\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/attorney-general-merrick-garland-says-government-could-sue-states-over-abortion-access-11658354465\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">launched a special task force<\/a>\u00a0to \u201cevaluate state laws that hinder women\u2019s ability to seek abortions in other states where the procedure remains legal or that ban federally approved medication that terminates a pregnancy.\u201d The task force will also \u201coppose state efforts to penalize federal employees\u201d who perform abortions \u201cauthorized by federal law.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What could that mean? Well, take a look at the lawsuit Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton just filed against HHS. The administration is trying to use the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) to force ER doctors to perform abortions, even if it contravenes state laws outlawing the procedure. EMTALA was passed in 1986 as a way to prevent \u201cpatient dumping,\u201d or turning away people who couldn\u2019t pay, and it requires hospitals that receive Medicare money (which today is all of them) to treat people who show up at an ER in need of emergency treatment.<\/p>\n<p>The Texas lawsuit argues the Biden administration is trying to \u201cuse federal law to transform every emergency room in the country into a walk-in abortion clinic,\u201d and that \u201cEMTALA does not authorize \u2014 and has never authorized \u2014 the federal government to compel healthcare providers to perform abortions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Garland and HHS claim that EMTALA preempts state law, but it\u2019s unclear what that means in the context of the new HHS rules. If a state legislature passed a law saying that emergency rooms are prohibited from treating patients without health insurance, then yeah, EMTALA would preempt that.<\/p>\n<p>But as Paxton\u2019s lawsuit rightly notes, EMTALA says nothing about abortion, nor does it say anything about which specific treatments a hospital ER must administer. It only states that Medicare-participating hospitals have to provide \u201cstabilizing treatment\u201d for \u201cemergency medical conditions,\u201d and it specifically defines both those terms in the statute.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For Democrats, though, laws passed by representatives of the people are no obstacle to their attempt to rule by administrative fiat. On July 11, the Biden administration\u2019s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued \u201cguidance\u201d purportedly reminding hospitals of their obligations under EMTALA. But the guidance was much more than a reminder, and it was accompanied by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hhs.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/emergency-medical-care-letter-to-health-care-providers.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a letter<\/a>\u00a0from HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra that amounted to an abortion mandate for hospitals, asserting powers under EMTALA that simply don\u2019t exist anywhere in federal law.<\/p>\n<p>First, Becerra\u2019s letter claims that if an ER doctor determines that \u201cabortion is the stabilizing treatment necessary to resolve [an emergency medical condition as defined by EMTALA], the physician must provide that treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But this is nothing more than a cheap word game. Abortion isn\u2019t a \u201cstabilizing treatment,\u201d and nowhere in federal law is it construed as such. Becerra is conflating Democrats\u2019 loose rhetoric about abortion \u2014 that it\u2019s \u201creproductive healthcare\u201d or \u201cwomen\u2019s health\u201d \u2014 with the straightforward reality of the federal EMTALA statute, which says nothing about abortion and, to the contrary, specifically mentions an \u201cemergency medical condition\u201d as one that threatens the life of an unborn child.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Second, Becerra\u2019s false claim that EMTALA preempts state abortion laws is contradicted by the plain language of EMTALA itself, which says the law doesn\u2019t preempt state law \u201cexcept to the extent that the requirement directly conflicts with a requirement\u201d of EMTALA. But abortion is not a requirement of EMTALA and doesn\u2019t even fit the law\u2019s definition of \u201cstabilizing treatment\u201d for an \u201cemergency medical condition.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a decent country, Texas would easily win this lawsuit \u2014 and the Justice Department would never step in to try to get it thrown out. But Democrats are committed to subverting the democratic process at both the state and federal level in order to preserve some shred of their abortion regime. They want to preempt state laws they don\u2019t like by twisting the meaning of federal laws that don\u2019t have anything to say about abortion.<\/p>\n<p>Remember that the next time you hear President Biden or some other leading Democrat talk about \u201cthreats to democracy.\u201d They don\u2019t care about democracy, they care about power. And they will use every ounce of it they have to advance their policies \u2014 the will of the people be damned.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  John Daniel Davidson is a senior editor at The Federalist. His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Claremont Review of Books, The New York Post, and elsewhere. Follow him on Twitter, @johnddavidson.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-comments mt-30 mt-sm-60\">\n<div class=\"article-comments-container d-flex flex-column align-items-center py-30\">\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"110\" height=\"106\" src=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/fdrlst-mark.svg\" class=\"img-fluid mb-20\" alt=\"The Federalist logo eagle mark\" \/>    <\/p>\n<p>Unlock commenting by joining the Federalist Community.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/plans\/pricing\/\" class=\"btn btn-on-white\">Subscribe<\/a>  <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Democrats love to talk about democracy \u2014 mostly about how it\u2019s under threat from Republicans and \u201cChristian nationalists\u201d and anyone who opposes their agenda. But at least on a rhetorical<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":518,"featured_media":1897780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1565765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_finder_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/07\/22\/in-the-wake-of-roes-demise-democrats-are-doing-all-they-can-to-thwart-democracy\/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=in-the-wake-of-roes-demise-democrats-are-doing-all-they-can-to-thwart-democracy","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1565765","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\/518"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1565765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1565765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1897780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1565765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1565765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1565765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}