US bishops’ pro-life chairman welcomes Trump administration’s action on emergency-room abortions
June 11, 2025
The chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities welcomed the Department of Health and Human Services’ decision to rescind the Biden administration’s guidance on a 1986 federal law, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA).
The previous administration’s guidance mandated that federally funded hospitals perform direct abortions in some circumstances.
“We welcome the government’s decision to restore clarity to the federal law that ensures that all people, including both pregnant mothers and their preborn children, can receive necessary emergency care at hospitals,” said Bishop Daniel Thomas of Toledo, Ohio. “The guidance that was imposed three years ago introduced unnecessary confusion into health care settings in the form of an abortion mandate.”
Bishop Thomas continued:
It is important to recognize that, when necessary, there are morally and legally permissible procedures to save the life of a mother in a health crisis, even when they may result in the terrible loss of her child. The government’s attempt to force doctors to perform direct abortions, however, defied the purpose of the long-standing EMTALA law, which is to help save the lives of vulnerable women who arrive at emergency rooms and, if they are pregnant, the lives of their babies as well.
We are grateful for [the June 3] rescission announcement and will continue to encourage policies that ensure high-quality and accessible health care to all people in need.
Bishop Thomas’s distinction between direct abortions, which are intrinsically immoral, and morally permissible procedures to save the life of the mother echoes a 2024 statement on EMTALA by Bishop Michael Burbidge, the pro-life committee’s previous chairman.
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Further information:
- Welcoming Clarity in Protection of Both Women and Preborn Children (USCCB)
- HHS rescinds Biden administration’s guidance on emergency-room abortions (CWN, 6/4/25)
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