March 05,2025

Wyden Condemns Trump DOJ for Abandoning Case Protecting Emergency Abortion Care at Hospitals

“In abandoning this case, Donald Trump is abandoning women everywhere”

Washington, D.C. – Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., today condemned Donald Trump’s Department of Justice for dropping a case brought by the Biden administration that challenged Idaho’s extreme abortion ban, which denies women their federal right to emergency treatment, including emergency abortion care, under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA).

“In abandoning this case, Donald Trump is abandoning women everywhere and sending the clear message that he doesn't care about women dying. Millions of women are being denied the care they need, and Trump and his cronies don’t care that these tragedies are becoming a way of life for women in America,” Wyden said. “When Republicans say 'leave it to the states,' that's code for 'let women die.' The blood of every woman who has died and will die is on the hands of the Republicans who have chosen to abandon women in this country.”

In December, Wyden released the findings of the Finance Committee’s investigation, “Practicing Amid ‘a Minefield’: Emergency Reproductive Health Care Post-Dobbs,” which revealed that, faced with the challenges presented by state abortion bans, hospitals are not providing physicians with clear and comprehensive guidance on protocols for providing the comprehensive emergency reproductive health care that is guaranteed by EMTALA. The investigation also found that doctors are scared to provide the emergency care they swore an oath to provide, even in the most dire of circumstances.

Since the report’s release, there continues to be news reports of increased maternal mortality rates in the wake of Dobbs, with ProPublica most recently reporting on soaring sepsis rates after Texas banned abortion.

In October 2024, Wyden co-led an amicus brief urging the Ninth Circuit Court to affirm that EMTALA requires hospitals to provide emergency stabilizing care, including abortion care, and preempts draconian abortion bans like the one in Idaho. The Finance Committee also held a hearing in September 2024 on the issue, “Chaos and Control: How Trump Criminalized Women’s Health Care,” where members heard directly from a patient who was denied emergency care in Louisiana and an OBGYN who was forced to move from Idaho to Oregon due to Idaho’s strict abortion laws.

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