The Georgia hospital that failed to save Amber Thurman may have broken a federal law when doctors there waited 20 hours to perform a procedure criminalized by the state’s abortion ban, according to Sen. Ron Wyden, chair of the Senate Finance Committee.
The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTALA, requires hospitals to provide emergency care to stabilize patients who need it — or transfer them to a hospital that can. Passed nearly four decades ago, the law applies to any hospital with an emergency department and that accepts Medicare funding, which includes the one Thurman went to, Piedmont Henry in suburban Atlanta. The finance committee has authority over the regulatory agency that enforces the law.
In a letter sent Monday, Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, cites ProPublica’s investigation into Thurman’s death, which was found preventable by a state committee of maternal health experts. The senator’s letter asks Piedmont CEO David Kent whether the hospital has delayed or denied emergency care to pregnant patients since Georgia’s abortion ban went into effect. (Kent did not respond to requests for comment.)
If you’ve really old enough to remember Nixon, then you should know that Democratic administrations are only able to accomplish one major legislative initiative, and sometimes not even that.
If you expect Democrats to make major progress on multiple problems at once, then you simply don’t understand how US politics work. The system is not meant to deliver rapid progress at the national level. That’s why many of the things on your list are addressed at the state level instead.
Unfortunately, not nothing for Clinton. His major initiative was NAFTA and he deserves all the criticism he’s gotten for it.
Otherwise, I don’t disagree with you.
NAFTA negotiations began in 1988, during Bush Sr’s term. Clinton only signed it, as it was a mostly complete agreement by the time he took office. Hell, the idea for NAFTA was literally a part of Reagan’s '80 presidential campaign.
Fair enough