Rep. Eshoo Joins Congressional Amicus Brief to Defend Women’s Access to Life-Saving Abortion Care

PALO ALTO, CA - U.S. Congresswoman Anna G. Eshoo (CA-16)joined 209 Members of the House and 49 Members of the Senate in signing an amicus brief to the consolidated cases of Moyle v. United States and Idaho v. United States that the Supreme Court will hear in April:

"For decades, the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) has required hospitals to provide emergency medical care and all necessary stabilizing treatments to anyone who needs it, which may include emergency abortion services.

"In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization which overruled decades of settled legal precedent set by Roe v. Wade, extremist legislators in Idaho hacked away at women's access to abortion services by passing a law making it a felony for physicians to provide abortion services unless necessary to prevent a patient's death. Anti-abortion groups have made it clear that they will use every legal remedy available to strip this right away, even though most Americans support access to abortion care.

"EMTALA has been the law of the land since 1986. Chipping away at EMTALA's emergency protections is another right-wing effort to attack women's reproductive freedom, no matter how many lives it puts at risk. In cases across the country, women are going into sepsis in parking lots or being turned away from receiving critical abortion care in the emergency room unless they're at death's door. Women deserve better which is why I'm proud to sign the Congressional amicus brief with my Democratic colleagues in support of federal law and ensuring women's access to life-saving treatments."

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