Demand Your Republican Senator Explain Their Opposition to Emergency Abortion Care
The call script below should only be used if your Republican representative was one of the 121 members of Congress who signed an amicus brief in support of Idaho's abortion ban, which has cruelly narrow exceptions and conflicts with federal law requiring hospitals to stabilize patients with emergency medical conditions. You can learn more about the case and whether your representative was a co-signer in our explainer here.
With Roe overturned, Republicans are continuing their crusade to ban all abortion -- even when it means pushing pregnant patients to the brink of death. Idaho’s post-Roe abortion ban only permits an exception if necessary to prevent the death of the pregnant person, but the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA, pronounced “em-TAHL-uh”) requires hospitals to prevent serious harm to the patient’s health, not just prevent their death. The Biden Administration challenged the law in court where it was put on hold, but the Supreme Court allowed it to go into effect when they agreed to hear the consolidated case (Idaho v. United States and Moyle v. United States).
The question before the MAGA Justices: Whether state abortion bans can trump the longstanding federal patient protections under EMTALA that require hospitals to provide stabilizing treatment for emergency medical conditions. Simply put, Republicans would rather pregnant patients with emergency medical complications be forced to suffer than allow doctors to follow federal law to prevent serious harm to the patient long before they’re at death’s door.
121 Republicans in Congress filed an amicus brief in the case urging the Supreme Court to side with states who want to criminalize doctors for complying with EMTALA. Check here to see if your Republican Senator(s) signed the brief. If they did, fill out this form right now and we’ll connect you to them.
We can’t let these life-and-death attacks on our rights be normalized. Ask why your Senator supports criminalizing doctors for doing their jobs and preventing serious harm to pregnant women. Tell them abortion is healthcare and politicians have no right to interfere with these decisions.
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Why Are You Willing to Risk Women's Lives for Your Anti-Abortion Crusade?
Hello, I'm a constituent from [part of state], calling about [SENATOR NAME'S] signature on the amicus brief submitted to the Supreme Court in the emergency abortion care case out of Idaho.
This ban dangerously forces doctors to wait until a pregnant woman is nearly dead before providing necessary abortion care, in direct violation of federal EMTALA (em-TAHL-uh) requirements. Why has [SENATOR NAME] endorsed a position that risks women's lives by criminalizing doctors for performing their duties and why are you willing to risk women's lives for your anti-abortion crusade?
Thank you for taking action for reproductive freedom. Now, we have just one more ask (okay, maybe two). At least some of these Republicans are hoping that their constituents never catch wind of their signature on this amicus brief. We want to be sure that as many of their voters know about it as possible -- because risking women's lives is a wildly unpopular position. So this is what we need you to do next:
Submit this Letter to the Editor to Your Local Newspaper: If you haven't already, use our easy-to-use (really!) tool to submit a letter to the editor to your local newspaper about your Republican member of Congress's position to ensure as many of your neighbors as possible know about it.
Next, Send Your Republican a Little Message on Social Media: Save this graphic to your computer and open up your favorite social media platform. Upload it, then, paste something like this as your message: My Republican Senator (be sure to tag them!) signed onto an amicus brief supporting forcing pregnant women to suffer until they're nearly dead before receiving life-saving abortion care. I called their office. Check to see if your Republican is on the list and make the call: bit.ly/emtalasen.
That's it! You're done. If you're looking to do even more on social media to help us spread the word about Republicans' latest efforts to ban abortion nationwide, we've got plenty more posts for you in our digital toolkit here.
