Governor Newsom warns of unnecessary danger following CMS reversal of emergency protections for pregnant women in crisis

What this means for patients

While today’s ruling does not impact women in California, where doctors are always legally empowered to put the safety of their patients first, it will likely have an increasingly chilling effect on hospitals and physicians, particularly in states with total abortion bans that do not make exceptions for the health of the pregnant person (Arkansas, Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and South Dakota). Hospitals and physicians in these states are legally prohibited from providing abortion as a stabilizing treatment for women experiencing emergency medical conditions, unless that condition becomes life-threatening.

How we got here

Following the Supreme Court’s decision Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, President Joe Biden’s administration issued guidance stating that: “A physician’s professional and legal duty to provide stabilizing medical treatment to a patient… preempts any directly conflicting state law or mandate that might otherwise prohibit or prevent such treatment.” The guidance clarified that hospitals and physicians have an obligation to provide stabilizing care, including abortion, if that is necessary to stabilize a patient experiencing an emergency medical condition. 

The Biden administration sued the state of Idaho in August 2022 arguing that their near-total abortion ban was in violation of EMTALA. In June 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling meant that hospitals in Idaho could perform emergency services, including abortions, to save the life of a pregnant woman. At the time, the Court declined to make clear that federal law protects pregnant women in emergency settings. The Trump administration dismissed that lawsuit in March.

California leadership on reproductive health care

California has also already taken multiple actions to protect patients in states with extreme abortion bans, and in California. In the years since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Governor Newsom, in partnership with the California Legislature, has built California into a national leader for reproductive freedom and expanded the fight nationwide through the 23-Governor Reproductive Freedom Alliance.

People seeking abortion care or information about reproductive health care in California, should visit Abortion.CA.Gov.