Press Release
Reproductive Freedom for All Statement on Supreme Court Hearing Case That Could Deny Pregnant People Emergency Care
For Immediate Release: Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Contact: [email protected]
Reproductive Freedom for All Statement on Supreme Court Hearing Case That Could Deny Pregnant People Emergency Care
Washington, DC — Tomorrow, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Idaho vs. United States, a case to determine if states can deny pregnant people emergency abortion care. This case is centered around The Emergency Medical Treatment And Labor Act (EMTALA). This federal law ensures people can access emergency medical care, even if they do not have insurance or are otherwise unable to pay for it. In the nearly two years since Donald Trump orchestrated the fall of Roe v. Wade, Republicans across the country have restricted or banned abortion in 21 states. Anti-abortion extremists are now using this case to make this crisis worse by excluding pregnant people from this protection and forcing doctors to turn away pregnant people in need of emergency care.
Reproductive Freedom for All President and CEO Mini Timmaraju released the following statement:
“Republican politicians simply do not care about the lives of pregnant women and people trying to get life-saving emergency health care. While President Biden and his administration have sought to save lives in the face of these horrific abortion bans, Republicans have sought to further plunge us into a deadly crisis. We won’t forget when we head to the polls this November.”
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 86% of people support protecting access to abortion for patients who are experiencing pregnancy-related emergencies. But since Trump’s anti-abortion supermajority on the Supreme Court ended the federal right to abortion, pregnant people have faced unimaginable situations, being denied care because of abortion bans until they are on the brink of death.
- Anya Cook had a pregnancy complication that put her life at risk — but because of an extreme abortion ban in her state, doctors could not give her the care she needed. “The doctor said… ‘if I intervene, I could possibly be arrested’… Getting pregnant now feels like a death sentence.” –Cook in the Washington Post.
- Shanae Smith-Cunningham needed an emergency abortion for a nonviable pregnancy — but Florida’s laws meant doctors couldn’t help her. They advised her to travel to New York for the care she needed. “They are playing with people’s lives with this law,” –Smith-Cunningham in the Washington Post.
- Amanda Zurawski almost died of sepsis as doctors told her she had to get sick enough to get the care she needed. “My doctor said, ‘Well, right now we just have to wait, because we can’t induce labor, even though you’re 100% for sure going to lose your baby,” she said. According to CNN, “Amanda’s doctors sent her home and told her to watch for signs of infection, and that only when she was ‘considered sick enough that my life was at risk would they terminate the pregnancy,’ Amanda said.” – Eleanor Klibanoff and Rebecca Schneid in the Texas Tribune
- Nicole Blackmon was told her pregnancy wasn’t viable and was potentially fatal. She was forced to continue the pregnancy due to Tennessee’s abortion ban. “I was condemned to endure both physical and emotional torture, knowing that I was going to deliver a stillborn. How can Tennessee politicians stand by while this happens to people like me?” –Blackmon in NBC News.
- At Sacred Heart Emergency Center in Houston, front desk staff refused to check in one woman after her husband asked for help delivering her baby. She miscarried in a restroom toilet in the emergency room lobby while her husband called 911 for help. “She is bleeding a lot and had a miscarriage,” the husband told first responders in his call according to the Associated Press. “I’m here at the hospital but they told us they can’t help us because we are not their client.”
###
For over 50 years, Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly NARAL Pro-Choice America) has fought to protect and advance reproductive freedom at the federal and state levels—including access to abortion care, birth control, pregnancy and post-partum care, and paid family leave—for everybody. Reproductive Freedom for All is powered by its more than 4 million members from every state and congressional district in the country, representing the 8 in 10 Americans who support legal abortion.