Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called out former President Donald Trump, attributing the worsening emergency room situation for pregnant women to his actions as president.
Clinton's post on X, formerly known as Twitter, shared a news article detailing the increasing number of pregnant women being turned away from emergency rooms since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
Clinton wrote:
"Trump did this."
Clinton's post referenced Trump's appointment of three conservative Supreme Court justices—Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett—who voted to end the constitutional right to an abortion, imperiling the reproductive health of millions of women—the majority of them in red states—nationwide.
You can see her post below.
Trump has taken credit for the decision to overturn Roe and in January, he stated:
″[For] 54 years, they were trying to get Roe v. Wade terminated, and I did it. And I’m proud to have done it.”
The consequences of Trump's appointments and their subsequent decision have been dire.
The Associated Press article detailed cases of pregnant women suffering due to hospitals refusing to treat them. These instances include a woman who miscarried in the lobby restroom of a Texas emergency room after being denied care and another woman in North Carolina who gave birth in her car to a baby who did not survive after the hospital couldn't offer her an ultrasound.
Federal law mandates that emergency rooms must treat or stabilize patients who are in active labor or transfer them to another hospital if the facility is unable to provide the necessary care. Medical facilities accepting Medicare funding are required to comply with this law.
The Center for American Progress (CAP) noted in a report last year that by the 100th day after Roe was overturned, "nearly 22 million women of reproductive age—almost 1 in 3 women—found themselves living in states where abortion was unavailable or severely restricted."
The "overall trend" in red states since the decision has been to ban abortion "almost entirely," the organization elaborated. It said that the "vague nature" of many of these anti-choice statutes "has caused women to receive delayed care, putting their lives in danger and resulting in near-death experiences."
Given these facts, many have echoed Clinton's criticisms.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will consider arguments that could have an adverse impact on existing protections for emergency pregnancy care.
The Biden administration has sued Idaho over its abortion ban, arguing that it conflicts with the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), which mandates that healthcare providers perform abortions for emergency room patients when needed to treat an emergency medical condition, even if it contradicts a state's abortion restrictions.
Idaho's law makes it a felony for physicians to perform most abortions except in cases where the procedure is necessary to save the life of the mother. Should the state win the case, other states could impose stricter abortion bans that permit pregnancy terminations solely to prevent the mother's death, resulting in fragmented care and exposing doctors to further risk.
