On Monday, all three evening news broadcasts ignored the Biden administration's Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is now mandating taxpayer-funded hospitals, which include Catholic hospitals, to provide what they ironically refer to as "life-saving abortions" regardless of whether they are illegal in their state.
Predictably, ABC's World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, and NBC Nightly News ignored the Biden admin's disregard for the Supreme Court's ruling overturning Roe v. Wade and allowing each state to decide. Instead, the three networks hyped the summer heat waves and blamed them on global warming. CBS Evening News even ran an abortion segment on some of the ongoing litigation surrounding state abortion laws. Yet there was no mention of the Biden administration's executive order.
According to an Axios piece from July 11, "the Department of Health and Human Services on Monday released guidance saying that health providers who perform abortions in emergency situations are protected under federal law regardless of what bans are in place in their states." The site claims that the order "is aimed at giving assurances to abortion providers who fear they could be prosecuted for offering potentially life-saving care."
This order would fall under the 1986 law "The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act" which "protects providers when offering legally-mandated, life- or health-saving abortion services in emergency situations."
HHS Secretary Xavier Beccerra wrote in the order:
If a physician believes that a pregnant patient at an emergency department, including certain labor and delivery departments, is experiencing an emergency medical condition as defined by EMTALA, and that abortion is the stabilizing treatment necessary to resolve that condition, the physician must provide that treatment. And when a state law prohibits abortion and does not include an exception for the life and health of the pregnant person --- or draws the exception more narrowly than EMTALA's emergency medical condition definition ---- that state law is preempted.
In response to the HHS guidance order, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced he was suing the Biden administration. Taking to Twitter, Paxton wrote: "Biden is attempting to twist federal law to force abortions in TX. SCOTUS returned the issue to states. TX law protects pre-born life. Biden’s HHS is attempting to undo all that. Not on my watch. I just filed suit. I’ll ensure the left’s abortion agenda can’t reach TX babies."
Biden is attempting to twist federal law to force abortions in TX. SCOTUS returned the issue to states. TX law protects pre-born life. Biden’s HHS is attempting to undo all that.
— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) July 14, 2022
Not on my watch. I just filed suit. I’ll ensure the left’s abortion agenda can’t reach TX babies. pic.twitter.com/P84jlF893T
Texas isn't alone, according to our friend and former MRC Culture editor Katie Yoder of the Catholic News Agency (CNA), "the largest association of Catholic individuals in health care is condemning the Biden administration for ordering health care providers to perform abortions in emergency situations under federal law."
Dr. Marie Hilliard, co-chair of the Catholic Medical Association's Ethics Committee told Yoder and CNA that “Catholic health care agencies and providers are committed to the same goals intended by EMTALA. They are dedicated to providing the highest standard of care to both the mother and her unborn child without directly compromising either one in the process.”
According to Yoder, Hilliard added: “In fact, by the consistently high quality of care it is known to provide, Catholic health care has demonstrated that both can be beautifully served.”
This bias by omission from the three networks was made possible by Ensure on ABC, Red Lobster on CBS, and Cadillac on NBC. Their information is linked so you can let them know about the biased news they fund.
