Senate chairman demands answers from emergency rooms that denied care to pregnant patients

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hospitals are facing questions about why they denied care to pregnant patients and whether state abortion bans have influenced how they treat those patients.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, sent inquiries to nine hospitals ahead of a hearing Tuesday looking at whether abortion bans have prevented or delayed pregnant women from getting help during their miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies or other medical emergencies.

He is part of a Democratic effort to focus the nation's attention on the stories of women who have faced horrible realities since some states tightened a patchwork of abortion laws. The strict laws are injecting chaos and hesitation into the emergency room, Wyden said during Tuesday's hearing.

“Some states that have passed abortion bans into law claim that they contain exceptions if a woman’s life is at risk,” Wyden said. “In reality, these exceptions are forcing doctors to play lawyer. And lawyer to play doctor. Providers are scrambling to make impossible decisions between providing critical care or a potential jail sentence.”

Republicans on Tuesday assailed the hearing, with outright denials about the impact abortion laws have on the medical care women in the U.S. have received, and called the hearing a politically-motivated attack just weeks ahead of the presidential election. Republicans, who are noticeably nervous about how the new abortion laws will play into the presidential race, lodged repeated complaints about the hearing's title, “How Trump Criminalized Women's Health Care."

“Unfortunately, as demonstrated by the overtly partisan nature of the title, it appears that the purpose of today’s hearing is to score political points against the former president," said Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho, a Republican.

A federal law requires emergency rooms to provide stabilizing care for patients, a mandate that the Biden administration argues includes abortions needed to save the health or life of a woman. But anti-abortion advocates have argued that the law also requires hospitals to stabilize a fetus, too. The Senate Finance Committee comes into play because it oversees Medicare funding, which can be yanked when a hospital violates the federal law.

The Associated Press has reported that more than 100 women have been denied care in emergency rooms across the country since 2022. The women were turned away in states with and without strict abortion bans, but doctors in Florida and Missouri, for example, detailed in some cases they could not give patients the treatment they needed because of the state’s abortion bans. Wyden sent letters to four of the hospitals that were included in the AP's reports, as well as a hospital at the center of a ProPublica report that found a Georgia woman died after doctors delayed her treatment.

Reports of women being turned away, several Republicans argued, are the result of misinformation or misunderstanding of abortion laws.

OB-GYN Amelia Huntsberger told the committee that she became very familiar with Idaho's abortion law, which initially only allowed for abortions if a woman was at risk for death, when it went into effect in 2022. So did her husband, an emergency room doctor. A year ago, they packed and moved their family to Oregon as a result.

“It was clear that it was inevitable: if we stayed in Idaho, at some point there would be conflict between what a patient needed and what the laws would allow for," Huntsberger said.

Huntsberger is not alone. Idaho has lost nearly 50 OB-GYNs since the state's abortion ban was put into place.

FILE - An. Abortion rights demonstrator holds a sign during a rally on May 14, 2022, in Chattanooga, Tenn. (AP Photo/Ben Margot, File)

FILE - Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., speaks during a hearing on Capitol Hill, March 20, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib, File)

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — As the first St. Lucian to win an Olympic medal, sprinter Julien Alfred already has poems, paintings and even a calypso song dedicated to her.

On Tuesday, officials announced that Sept. 27 would be Julien Alfred Day, as the 23-year-old known as “JuJu” returned home to the eastern Caribbean island where she once ran barefoot as a child.

“I’m truly lost for words,” she told Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre and other government officials who gathered to celebrate her before organizing a motorcade for thousands of impatient fans waiting outside, some of whom came from as far away as London.

The gold medal that Alfred won in the 100-meter sprint at the 2024 Paris Olympics and the silver medal she earned in the 200-meter sprint hung around her neck.

She thanked her mother, the government, her coach and others, including “my village.”

“So many people have guided me along the way and helped me to get to this point,” she said as her voice broke. “It didn’t come easy. It was truly a rocky road. Many days I just wanted to give up.”

Alfred quit running when she was around 12 years old after her father died. Her coach convinced her to run again and then she moved to Jamaica as a teenager to train. At the University of Texas she became a multiple NCAA champion.

On Tuesday afternoon, fire-breathing dancers greeted Alfred as she prepared to climb into a blue sports car to start the motorcade. Fans high-fived her and requested selfies, with one young girl handing her a tennis shoe for an autograph as she smiled shyly.

“Let’s go! Let’s go! Let’s go!” yelled security as they tried to get Alfred into the car.

With a large St. Lucia flag draped on her back, Alfred waved and blew kisses to people lined up to greet her.

“Come on out, St. Lucia, let’s wave and join this celebratory moment!” said one woman who was narrating a live video of the motorcade as calypso music blared.

Gathered along the road were elderly people, young fathers holding babies and a group of schoolgirls in brown uniforms who chanted “JuJu! JuJu!” as they giggled and gathered around her for a hug as the motorcade slowed down.

Another woman shouted, “Love from Jamaica, my gyal!”

Prior to winning two Olympic medals, Alfred won a gold medal in the 60 meters at the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships, also a first for St. Lucia.

At the Olympics, she ran the 100-meter race in 10.72 seconds, beating favorite Sha’Carri Richardson and dedicating the win to her father.

“He believed I could be an Olympian. That I can be here,” Alfred said at the time.

Earlier this month, Alfred also won the women’s 100 meters during the Diamond League final 2024 athletics meet in Brussels.

The celebration for Alfred on the island of 238 square miles (617 square kilometers) is expected to continue for at least two more days, with a rally scheduled for Wednesday and a visit to a primary school on Thursday.

T.C. Brown, a local songwriter and producer, told the St. Lucia Times last week that he was inspired to write “Merci JuJu” in her honor.

He was quoted as saying that at the time of the win, everyone was saying, ‘Thank you, Julien Alfred. But, he said, referring to a local dialect, "Kwéyòl has a much sweeter way of expressing the message.”

Julien Alfred, of Saint Lucia, poses after winning the women's 100 meters during the Diamond League final 2024 athletics meet in Brussels, Friday, Sept. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Frederic Sierakowski)