The Trump administration this week rolled back a controversial Biden-era policy that reinterpreted federal emergency care law to require hospitals and doctors to perform abortions in certain emergency cases—regardless of state abortion restrictions or doctors’ conscience objections.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced it is rescinding a July 2022 guidance that interpreted the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) to include abortion as a required emergency procedure. The Biden administration had used EMTALA—a 1986 law that ensures hospital emergency rooms treat patients regardless of their ability to pay—to argue that in some medical crises, abortion was a federally protected form of “stabilizing treatment.”
Critics of the 2022 rule argued it went beyond EMTALA’s original scope and effectively forced emergency room physicians to perform abortions, even when it conflicted with state laws or individual medical ethics.
“As a board-certified ob-gyn for over 30 years, the administration’s change in stance is welcome news for both of my patients—a pregnant woman and her unborn child—whose lives are both prioritized by EMTALA,” said Dr. Ingrid Skop, vice president of the Charlotte Lozier Institute, a pro-life medical think tank. “This coercive effort by the prior administration to subvert existing laws to promote abortion was never necessary.”
Legal and Political Backdrop
The Biden-era EMTALA guidance quickly became the center of legal and political conflict. The Justice Department sued Idaho in 2022, arguing that the state’s abortion law conflicted with the federal requirement to provide abortions in medical emergencies. The Supreme Court initially took up the case but later sent it back to lower courts, leaving the matter unsettled.
In March 2025, Attorney General Pam Bondi dropped the lawsuit after taking over the Justice Department under President Trump, effectively ending the federal challenge to Idaho’s law.
CMS said the rollback does not mean hospitals can deny treatment to pregnant women experiencing medical emergencies. The agency emphasized that both the mother and her unborn child remain protected under federal law.
“CMS will continue to enforce EMTALA, which protects all individuals who present to a hospital emergency department seeking examination or treatment, including for identified emergency medical conditions that place the health of a pregnant woman or her unborn child in serious jeopardy,” the agency said in a statement.
CMS also pledged to “rectify any perceived legal confusion and instability created by the former administration’s actions.”
New Leadership and Legal Pushback
CMS is currently led by Dr. Mehmet Oz, the former heart surgeon and 2022 Republican Senate candidate from Pennsylvania. Oz, who previously expressed pro-life views, echoed the administration’s assertion that the Biden policy created unnecessary confusion.
“Don’t believe the spin and fearmongering of the fake news,” Oz posted on social media platform X. “The Biden Administration created confusion, but EMTALA is clear and the law has not changed: women will receive care for miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, and medical emergencies in all fifty states—this has not and will never change in the Trump Administration.”
The policy change is consistent with President Trump’s stated position on abortion: opposing late-term abortion and federal mandates while supporting exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a former Democrat and self-described moderate on abortion, has backed the move, aligning with Trump’s stance on conscience protections for medical providers.
Earlier this year, the Catholic Medical Association filed a lawsuit against the Biden-era EMTALA guidelines, arguing they infringed on religious freedom by compelling Catholic hospitals and doctors to perform procedures contrary to their beliefs.
Reactions from Pro-Life and Pro-Choice Groups
Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-Life America, called the rescission “a win for life and truth.”
“Led by Dr. Oz, the Trump administration has delivered another win for life and truth—stopping Biden’s attack on emergency care for both pregnant moms and their unborn children,” she said in a statement.
Meanwhile, abortion-rights advocates have expressed concern that the reversal could deter doctors from acting quickly in emergency cases involving pregnancy complications, potentially endangering women’s lives.
However, pro-life medical groups argue that claim is misleading. They point out that abortion bans across the country already contain exceptions for medical emergencies, including miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies—procedures that, while sometimes requiring the termination of a pregnancy, are not considered “elective abortions.”
“This move brings EMTALA back to its original intent,” said Roger Severino, former head of HHS’s Office for Civil Rights. “Federal law should protect both patients—the woman and her child—not be twisted into a mandate for abortion.”
As legal and medical debates continue, the Trump administration’s rollback signals a broader effort to reframe federal health policy in a way that balances emergency care protections with conscience rights and state-level abortion restrictions.
What Happens Next?
While the legal dust settles, hospitals and emergency departments will likely continue to operate under state laws while following updated CMS guidance. With EMTALA enforcement still intact for life-threatening situations involving both mothers and unborn children, federal oversight of emergency care remains, but without the abortion-specific mandate imposed by the previous administration.
