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Committee hears bill to codify emergency pregnancy-related care after federal enforcement shift on EMTALA
Summary
Senate Bill 447 would codify into Maryland law that hospitals must provide pregnancy-related emergency care, including abortion when necessary to save a patient's life or prevent serious injury, following federal enforcement changes to EMTALA.
Senate Bill 447, presented by Sen. Clarence Lam, would establish state-level requirements mirroring federal EMTALA protections for pregnancy-related emergency medical conditions and preserve state enforcement authority if federal enforcement lapses.
Lam told the committee that EMTALA, the federal anti-dumping law, has long required emergency departments to provide stabilizing, life-saving care regardless of a patient's ability to pay or hospital policies. He said recent federal changes — including the Department of Health and Human Services's change in enforcement priorities after the Dobbs decision and the subsequent…
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