Posted Oct. 10, 2024
On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to hear a case that pits a federal emergency care law against Texas’ near-total ban on abortion, risking pregnant people’s lives across the country. The dismissal leaves unresolved the critical question of whether physicians in states with the most restrictive abortion laws must provide abortion care in life-threatening emergencies.
Lives are literally at stake here and have already been lost.”
Dusti Gurule, COLOR Action Fund.
The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) is a nearly 40-year-old federal law requiring hospitals to provide treatment for emergency medical complications in order to save patients’ lives, including emergency abortion care. In Texas, Attorney General Ken Paxton and anti-abortion groups challenged the Biden administration’s guidance on EMTALA. The 5th Circuit Court ruled in favor of Texas in January, allowing the state to enforce its abortion ban.
“Lives are literally at stake here and have already been lost, as we were reminded again with the preventable deaths of Candi Miller and Amber Thurman in Georgia,” states Dusti Gurule, President and CEO of the Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights and COLOR Action Fund. “We know that barriers to healthcare disproportionately harm Latines and other communities of color. That’s why we’re leading our Abortion Access for All campaign, to ensure that the government cannot interfere with our right to access the health care we need, by enshrining access to abortion in Colorado’s state constitution. By voting YES on Amendment 79 in November, we ensure our state continues to honor the right of all Coloradans to make their own decisions about their reproductive health.”
Barriers to healthcare disproportionately harm Black, Latino, AAPI, and Indigenous communities, individuals with low incomes, those in rural areas, people with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ individuals. The United States is currently facing a maternal mortality crisis, with the highest rates amongst wealthy nations, disproportionately affecting Black and Indigenous communities.
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