CMS: Hospitals that denied life-saving abortion broke the law

Two Midwestern hospitals violated federal law by denying an abortion to a woman who experienced a medical emergency while pregnant, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said early last week. The hospitals under investigation are Freeman Health System in Joplin, MO., and University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City, KS.

The patient, a Missouri woman, experienced a preterm premature rupture of membranes at 18 weeks of pregnancy last August. Doctors said her condition could deteriorate rapidly but that hospital policies prevented them from providing treatment that could be considered an abortion.

“Fortunately, this patient survived,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said. “But she never should have gone through the terrifying ordeal she experienced in the first place. We want her and every patient out there like her to know that we will do everything we can to protect their lives and health, and to investigate and enforce the law to the fullest extent of our legal authority, in accordance with orders from the courts.”

The National Women’s Law Center filed complaints with CMS, launching the first-of-its-kind investigation that the federal agency has publicly acknowledged since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year. Across the country, women have reported being turned away from hospitals for abortions despite doctors telling them that this puts them at further risk for infection or even death.

Related: Who determines the standards of reproductive health care/?

CMS has not announced any fines or other penalties against the two hospitals in its investigation, but it did send them notice warnings that they were in violation of the law and asking them to correct the problems that led to the patient being turned away. Federal Medicare investigators will follow up with the hospitals before closing the case.

The Biden administration has cautioned hospitals to not turn away patients in these situations, even when state law forbids abortions. Weeks after the Supreme Court’s ruling, the administration reminded hospitals that federal law requires them to offer an abortion when a pregnant woman is at risk for an emergency medical condition. The federal government can investigate hospitals that receive Medicare and Medicaid money, which encompass most facilities in the United States, for violations of the law.

Abortions largely are banned in Missouri, with exceptions for medical emergencies. In Kansas, abortions remain legal up to 22 weeks. The University of Kansas Health System said in a statement that it “met the standard of care based upon the facts known at the time.” Freeman Health System did not respond to requests for comment.