The Georgia hospital that failed to save Amber Thurman may have broken a federal law when doctors there waited 20 hours to perform a procedure criminalized by the state’s abortion ban, according to Sen. Ron Wyden, chair of the Senate Finance Committee.
The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTALA, requires hospitals to provide emergency care to stabilize patients who need it — or transfer them to a hospital that can. Passed nearly four decades ago, the law applies to any hospital with an emergency department and that accepts Medicare funding, which includes the one Thurman went to, Piedmont Henry in suburban Atlanta. The finance committee has authority over the regulatory agency that enforces the law.
In a letter sent Monday, Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, cites ProPublica’s investigation into Thurman’s death, which was found preventable by a state committee of maternal health experts. The senator’s letter asks Piedmont CEO David Kent whether the hospital has delayed or denied emergency care to pregnant patients since Georgia’s abortion ban went into effect. (Kent did not respond to requests for comment.)
Problem with that is the Supreme Court has eliminated the impact of precedent by reversing many decisions including Roe v Wade that were based on it. So without a federal law in place, the doctors would still face years of expensive court proceedings before getting a federal appeals trial and the inability to work due to loss of state medical license until their particular case was settled. So that’s not much to assure doctors. Really most of the obstetricians will just leave those states. I hate that idea and it will likely take decades to replenish the workforce if the states were to reverse course or a federal law were to ever make its way through Congress to clarify what’s legal.
Some few people with a conscience might be horrified when they learn that the policies they worked so hard to get passed caused massive loss of life for mothers and infants, but many will think the price was worth it.
Enough people believe women are lesser beings (including many women which is especially sad), mostly because the religious texts almost all say as much, but also hubris. So it’s always been accepted by the majority of societies that if there’s a chance of brining one male child into this world, that’s more important than the mother, not only that but worth all the deaths of all the women who were evil enough to want to not be forced to give birth.