General
Abortion: Hyde/Weldon Conscience Protection Amendment Fact Sheet (2005)
The Hyde/Weldon Conscience Protection Amendment: No Threat to Women's Lives
"Claim: Abortion advocacy groups claim that the Hyde/Weldon Conscience Protection Amendment could endanger women's lives. They say that "the provision could allow hospitals to turn away women who need emergency abortions because they are hemorrhaging, experiencing heart failure, or suffering any one of a host of other grave complications of pregnancy. The measure could permit callous disregard for women's health despite federal and state laws that generally require hospitals to treat patients in medical emergencies.
Facts: Current federal law does forbid emergency rooms to abandon patients in medical emergencies, and requires them to provide treatment to stabilize the medical condition of such patients (including pregnant women). But this law, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMT ALA), does not require that abortion be used as the stabilizing treatment in any case. In fact, "emergency medical condition" is defined as a condition that may jeopardize "the health of the individual (or, with respect to a pregnant woman, the health of the woman or her unborn child)," and treatment is aimed at helping both mother and child. See 42 USC§ 1395dd (emphasis added). This longstanding law and the Hyde/Weldon amendment are in complete agreement.
Catholic health facilities, in particular, are committed to an ethical code that forbids all direct abortions. Yet since EMTALA was enacted in 1986, no Catholic hospital has ever been found in violation of it because of this ethical policy."