{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.bennet.senate.gov/2024/10/29/bennet-hickenlooper-colleagues-urge-federal-court-to-protect-access-to-emergency-abortions/", "Bennet, Hickenlooper, Colleagues Urge Federal Court to Protect Access to Emergency Abortions", "2024-10-29", "2024", "2024-10", "Democrat", "Senate", "CO", "Michael F. Bennet", "B001267", "www.bennet.senate.gov", "bennet", "https://www.bennet.senate.gov/news/page/", "scraper", "Denver \u2014 Colorado U.S. Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, alongside 258 members of Congress, submitted an amicus brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit calling on the court to require Medicare-funded hospitals to provide life-saving care that may include abortion care. The court is considering Moyle v. United States and Idaho v. United States which concern the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), a federal law that requires hospitals that receive Medicare funding to provide necessary \u201cstabilizing treatment\u201d to patients experiencing medical emergencies, which can include abortion care.\n\n\u201c\u201c[T]he 99th Congress passed EMTALA to ensure that every person who visits a Medicare-funded hospital with an \u2018emergency medical condition\u2019 is offered stabilizing treatment,\u201d wrote Bennet, Hickenlooper, and the lawmakers.\n\nAfter the Dobbs v. Jackson decision in 2022, Idaho passed a law making it a felony for a doctor to terminate a patient\u2019s pregnancy unless it is \u201cnecessary\u201d to prevent the patient\u2019s death. The U.S. Department of Justice sued Idaho, arguing that the state\u2019s law is preempted by EMTALA in those circumstances in which abortion may not be necessary to prevent imminent death, but still constitutes the necessary stabilizing treatment for a patient\u2019s emergency medical condition. The district court agreed; however, Idaho appealed that ruling to the Supreme Court.\n\nIn their brief, the lawmakers ask the Ninth Circuit to uphold the district court\u2019s ruling. They argue that the congressional intent, text, and history of EMTALA make clear that covered hospitals must provide abortion care when it\u2019s necessary to stabilize a patient\u2019s emergency medical condition, and that EMTALA preempts Idaho\u2019s abortion ban in emergency situations that present a serious threat to a patient\u2019s health.\n\n\u201cCongress chose broad language for that mandate, requiring hospitals that participate in the Medicare program to provide \u2018such treatment as may be required to stabilize the medical condition.\u2019\u2026 That text\u2014untouched by Congress for the past three decades\u2014makes clear that in situations in which a doctor determines that abortion constitutes the \u2018[n]ecessary stabilizing treatment\u2019 for a pregnant patient, federal law requires the hospital to offer it,\u201d continued the lawmakers.\n\nIn March, Bennet and 257 of his colleagues filed an amicus brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to affirm the district court decision. In June, the Supreme Court sent the case back to the Ninth Circuit Court and reinstated the district court\u2019s injunction.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:55:29Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.bennet.senate.gov/2024/10/29/bennet-hickenlooper-colleagues-urge-federal-court-to-protect-access-to-emergency-abortions/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.703141886740923, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}