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.)

  • Maeve
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    -22 months ago

    Congratulations. He started with nothing. We started with a LOT.

    • @FlowVoid
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      52 months ago

      If you support everything FDR did, but nothing more, then by definition you are neither to the left nor the right of FDR.

      If you support everything FDR did, except you also support the tiniest bit of health care reform, then by definition you are to the left of FDR.

      • Maeve
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        -32 months ago

        Yeah. Thanks for addressing my points on how much we didn’t gain and how much we’ve lost.

        • @FlowVoid
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          52 months ago

          Believe it or not, there is another political party in the US. They are supported by half the country and are successfully advancing their agenda, in part because people like you don’t put any effort into stopping them.

            • @FlowVoid
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              42 months ago

              Unless you vote for Democrats, you really aren’t.

              • Maeve
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                -22 months ago

                That’s what they’ve been telling me since Nixon, Dems keep moving right.

                • @FlowVoid
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                  62 months ago

                  No, they aren’t.

                  If you’re old enough to remember Nixon then you’re old enough to remember Phil Gramm, Zell Miller, and Sam Nunn. All of them Democrats who were more conservative than any Democrat today.

                  More recently, Lieberman, Manchin, and Sinema all left the party. Every time a conservative Democrat leaves, the party center of gravity moves left.

                  • Maeve
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                    -22 months ago

                    Right. That’s why people today can afford a mortgage, vehicle, kids, higher education for them, health care and decent food, like they could then. How dare I believe my lying eyes.