Republicans block bill that would have affirmed the right to life-saving abortion care

Senate Republicans on Sept. 24 blocked a resolution that would have expressed “the sense of the Senate that every person has the basic right to emergency health care, including abortion care.”

The resolution was introduced by Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), who said in a speech that state abortion bans that have taken effect since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 have led to the unnecessary deaths of women who were denied life-saving abortion care.

“I come to the floor to offer a simple resolution, one that reaffirms the basic principle that when you go to the ER, the emergency room, they should be allowed to treat you,” Murray said in a speech on the Senate floor. “When your life is in danger, doctors should be able to do their job. When you need emergency care — including an abortion — no politician should stop you from getting it.”

ProPublica reported that in Georgia, two women died after they were unable to access a dilation and curettage, or D&C, a routine procedure in which doctors remove tissue from the lining of the uterus after an incomplete miscarriage to ensure that the tissue does not become infected. 

One of the women, Amber Thurman, died after doctors waited too long to perform a D&C, despite the fact that she was showing signs of infection after not expelling fetal tissue from her uterus. 

In Georgia, abortion is banned after six weeks’ gestation, and doctors face the possibility of serving up to 10 years in prison if they use “any instrument or other means … with intent to produce a miscarriage or abortion.”

Murray’s resolution specifically called out state abortion bans like the one in Georgia.

“State laws that purport to ban and restrict abortion in emergency circumstances force medical providers to decide between withholding necessary, stabilizing medical care from a patient experiencing a medical emergency or facing criminal prosecution, and put the lives, health, and futures of patients at risk,” the resolution said.

The resolution, which Murray sought to pass via unanimous consent, without a recorded vote from every senator, was blocked by Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Lankford.

Lankford said, “No state requires a woman to be actively dying in order for her doctor to care for her” — even though studies have found that hospitals and doctors are not providing life-saving abortion care because they fear they could run afoul of anti-abortion laws.

After the resolution failed, Murray issued a statement saying that abortion bans across the country have caused confusion among doctors about what kind of care they can legally provide, despite the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, which says that any hospitals that participate in Medicare must treat pregnant patients in emergencies.

“Here in America, in the 21st century, pregnant women are suffering and dying — not because doctors don’t know how to save them, but because doctors don’t know if Republicans will let them,” Murray said. “There are skyrocketing maternal death rates in states like Texas. And as I spoke out on the floor last week — there are, at least, two women dead in Georgia today because of Republican abortion bans.”

She continued, “Those kids are now growing up without a mother. That is the harsh reality. Republicans can’t ignore that. Donald Trump can’t shout over it. And the American people will not — ever — forget it.”