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.)
MAGA complaining that this is the federal big government getting involved in issues that they shouldn’t, ignoring that the state ban is doing exactly that for personal health for women. This needs to set a precedent to use, or rather a loophole for hospitals to use regardless of a state ban that threatens doctors with legal action for doing their job.
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.
You can resolve the paradox by remembering that MAGA isn’t arguing anything in good faith. At all.
The entirety of the GOP broke laws of humanity when they started this shit. The only proper punishment is to disband them and shut them down.
Yes harass the hospital for being caught between federal and state law. For trying to toe the fine line between it. If this continues it would not be a wonder if the hospitals shutter their maternal wings.
This consequence, the poor lady’s death, was warned by all the sane people when the state laws were being passed. Harassing doctors and hospital for law makers fault is not right.
Let’s just close hospitals in red states and put up border checks on blue states and see how this plays out. Sorey, go vote.
Removed by mod
You’re not voting for them anyway, so they don’t need to listen to you.
Lol. What rule was broken by that post?
No, they don’t need to listen to people who will vote for them anyway.
Eta: When mods break their own rules then gripe about authoritarianism. Please.
Parties pay the most attention to donors and primary voters, both of whom usually vote for the party in November.
If you never vote for Democrats, then as far as they’re concerned you’re in the same category as MAGA. They don’t listen to those people either.
Is that why the Democratic party has shifted so far right since the New Deal? So far right that war criminals are endorsing them?
Shifted to the right?
You realize FDR refused to put any form of health insurance into the New Deal because he thought it would be too socialist to pass?
Because they’ve been using the red scare since forever. Yes. Nixon was considering single payer, until he listened to Kaiser. You do realize candidates can be socially left and economically right? You do realize they can be socially left domestically and blow them up, abroad?
Compared to FDR, Democrats have moved left on health care (Medicare, ACA), gay rights (RFMA), race (VRA, Civil Rights Act), social welfare (Medicaid, SCHIP), women’s rights (Civil Rights Act, Lily Ledbetter), environment (IRA), drugs (multiple statewide decriminalization laws) …
FDR threw a hundred thousand American citizens into concentration camps. Is there even any room to the right of that?
