On June 3, the Trump administration issued an executive order rescinding Biden-era guidance that had reaffirmed hospitals’ obligation to provide life-saving abortion care.
Trump’s order puts the remaining protections for emergency abortion on shaky ground. One of the few actions Biden took to protect abortion rights was this 2022 guidance. Now Trump is signaling that even hospitals’ legal obligation to provide emergency abortion care — care to save a patient’s life — may not be defended by the administration if push comes to shove.
‘I didn’t want anyone else to have to go through this‘
The executive order is likely to have very real impacts as hospitals determine when and how to administer life-saving healthcare. In states like Texas with restrictive abortion laws, doctors could face criminal penalties for providing abortions in many circumstances. At least three women have died as a result of Texas’ harsh anti-abortion laws, and dozens more have revealed stories of having medically necessary abortions denied.
One of these women is Kyleigh Thurman. In February 2023, Thurman entered Ascension Seton Williamson Hospital in her hometown of Round Rock, near Austin. She was bleeding and in pain. The hospital found that her hormone levels had dropped and that there was no visible pregnancy in the uterus: tell-tale signs of an ectopic pregnancy.
An ectopic pregnancy is one in which a fertilized egg grows outside of the main cavity of the uterus. This type of pregnancy cannot proceed “normally.” These are not viable pregnancies, and without treatment, they can lead to hemorrhaging and death. One out of every fifty pregnancies is an ectopic pregnancy.
Instead of providing treatment, doctors handed Thurman a pamphlet on miscarriage and told her to “let nature take its course.”
She returned three days later due to continuous bleeding. Again, she was denied care.
Only on the third visit to Ascension Seton was Thurman treated for her ectopic pregnancy. By this point, her condition was “severe” enough that her life was at risk. One of her fallopian tubes had ruptured.
“[My OB/GYN] came in and she’s like, you’re either going to have to have a blood transfusion, or you’re going to have to have surgery or you’re going to bleed out,” said Thurman to the Associated Press. “That’s when I just kind of was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m, I’m dying.’”
What could potentially have been an easy procedure turned into a life-threatening nightmare.
A federal complaint to establish precedent — and its potential undoing
In August 2024, Thurman, along with another woman who had suffered a similar incident at another hospital, filed a complaint with the help of the Center for Reproductive Rights. The complaint accused the hospital of violating the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act.
Under EMTALA, hospitals must provide treatment to stabilize patients who are experiencing medical emergencies, regardless of their insurance or ability to pay. It is part of a patchwork of laws and regulations to the U.S. for-profit healthcare system, which would otherwise fail to provide even the most basic services to poor and working-class people.
The Biden administration issued guidance in 2022 that reaffirmed that doctors must provide abortions in emergency departments, even in states with strict abortion laws. This should have put to bed the most draconian edges of state laws.
But these women’s experiences demonstrate that hospitals have still not been providing this treatment. The investigation found that the hospitals were in violation of EMTALA for not treating the women.
By rescinding the 2022 guidance entirely, the Trump administration has now thrown another wrench in healthcare rights.
While EMTALA has not changed, what this signals is that the Trump administration is not willing to defend doctors and hospitals against the far-right onslaught in states like Texas. This fear means that medical providers will err on the side of not providing service when it is likely needed.
“The rescission of the guidance is yet another clear sign the administration is caving to its anti-abortion allies and reneging on President Trump’s campaign promises that his administration would not interfere with abortion access,” said the American Civil Liberties Union in a statement.
Only class struggle can reverse the trend
Without a doubt, the situation for abortion rights currently looks dire. The challenges to anti-abortion laws will continue, and as the ACLU states, the precedent to provide life-saving care has not changed. As Alexa Kolbi-Molinas, deputy director of the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project, stated:
The Trump administration cannot simply erase four decades of law protecting patients’ lives with the stroke of a pen … Regardless of where they live, pregnant patients have a right to emergency abortion care that will save their health or lives. By rescinding this guidance, the Trump administration has sent a clear signal that it is siding not with the majority, but with its anti-abortion allies — and that will come at the expense of women’s lives.
Most polls have showed that only an extreme minority of Americans (as low as 12%) support the far-right position that abortion should be illegal in all circumstances. Well over 80% support some form of abortion rights. Support is high across genders, racial groups, and even political party: even 60% of self-identified moderate Republicans support abortion rights.
The extreme abortion bans reveal the anti-democratic nature of the U.S. political system. It is not enough to rely on the courts or politicians to defend abortion rights, nor is it enough to fall back on just an emergency standard of care.
Abortion rights is fundamentally an issue of justice, of the right to our well-being, and of our political and democratic rights. If a small minority of billionaires can intervene at will to stop doctors from performing emergency healthcare, there is no one whose right to life is safe in this system. These issues need to be raised as an imperative to expand the movement.
In recent days, people have taken to the streets in the hundreds of thousands against the Trump administration. These protests demonstrate that, when mobilized, the working class is willing to stand against the dictatorship of the rich. The popular base for abortion rights is equally present in our society. To win abortion rights, that base must be even more organized as a class, ready to take on mass action.
