Senate Democrats this week are looking to put a spotlight on emergency abortion care in the wake of reporting on the abortion-related deaths of two women in Georgia that were deemed “preventable" by a state medical review committee.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced that the upper chamber would vote on a resolution on Tuesday put forth by a group of Senate Democrats, including President Pro tempore Patty Murray, D-Wash., that would establish a “basic right” to emergency health care, including as it relates to abortions.
“It’s a simple idea that emergency care should be a right for all and that doctors should never be afraid of doing their job while making life or death decisions,” Schumer said at a press conference on Tuesday. “How on earth could anyone have a problem with that?”
The vote comes after Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., sent letters to eight hospitals in states with strict abortion laws on Monday, in an effort to assess whether they have violated the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, known as EMTALA, in delaying or denying reproductive care to women.
The letters were sent to hospitals in Florida, Texas, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina and Missouri.
EMTALA is a federal law that requires that all Medicare-participating hospitals provide emergency services, including emergency abortion services, to patients regardless of someone’s ability to pay. This summer, the Supreme Court temporarily allowed a lower ruling to stay in place that allows doctors to perform abortion care in medical emergencies in Idaho despite the state’s ban.
Abortion rights advocates have argued that such laws are often vague and doctors are reluctant to perform emergency abortions out of fear of being prosecuted.
Democrats have sought to keep abortion and reproductive health at the forefront of their campaigns following the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022 as they believe the issue benefits them at the ballot box. But the fresh focus on emergency care specifically comes after ProPublica last week reported on the deaths of Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller, believed to be the first known abortion-related deaths since the Supreme Court reversed the national right to abortion.
Thurman, according to the reporting, died after developing a rare complication from abortion pills and doctors waited 20 hours before operating on her.
Georgia bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy except in cases involving medical emergencies, pregnancies in which the unborn child is not expected to survive, rape or incest.
Spectrum News' Ryan Chatelain contributed to this report.