Catholic medical group sues Biden administration over emergency room abortion rule
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by
Caroline Molloy
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A Catholic medical group has filed suit against the Biden administration over the government’s attempt to force emergency room doctors to perform abortions under a 40-year-old federal law.
The Catholic Medical Association (CMA), a professional guild that promotes and advocates Catholic ethics in the medical industry, filed the lawsuit on Friday in U.S. district court. The legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is representing the CMA.
In the lawsuit, CMA argues that the federal government acted unlawfully when in July 2022 it directed that hospitals and emergency rooms would be required to perform abortions under the 1986 Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA).
That law requires that hospitals provide stabilizing treatment in emergency rooms for any patients who show up. It was originally enacted to ensure that hospitals would not turn away patients who could not afford to pay for medical treatments.
The law itself “does not mandate, direct, approve, or even suggest the provision of any specific treatment,” CMA’s lawsuit argues. It further “says nothing about abortion and does not guarantee access to abortion.”
The government’s directive “threatens to second-guess the medical judgment or moral or religious beliefs of a hospital or physician,” the suit argues.
