June 04,2025

Wyden Condemns Trump Administration for Rescinding Biden-era EMTALA Guidance

Washington, D.C. – Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., today condemned the Trump administration for reversing Biden-era guidance that reaffirmed the obligation of hospitals to provide emergency treatment, including emergency abortion care, under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA).

“In the wake of Dobbs, the Biden-era EMTALA guidance was a reaffirmation of black letter law – that every person has the legal right to emergency stabilizing care no matter where they live. By throwing this important guidance out, the Trump administration is doubling down on the chaos and confusion that is leaving women to die in emergency rooms and hospital parking lots. The decision to rescind the EMTALA guidance – on top of their plot to eviscerate Medicaid and food assistance, defund Planned Parenthood and aggressively track women seeking reproductive health care – makes it even clearer: Republicans are determined to become the ‘let them die’ party if not the ‘make them die’ party.”

Wyden earlier this year condemned 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 2024, 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.

The Finance Committee 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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