Gov. Jay Inslee issued a directive today requiring the Department of Health to affirm that hospitals in Washington state have a legal requirement to provide emergency abortion services.
Inslee’s directive comes as the nation nears the two-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade. This month, the U.S. Supreme Court is poised to rule on another extreme anti-choice case known as Idaho v. United States and Moyle v. United States. This case out of Idaho would allow politicians to jail emergency room doctors for providing emergency abortion care.
“Ideological politicians are relentlessly interfering with the most private and crucial health care decisions a doctor and their patient will ever make, and now they’re doing so even when the life of a mother hangs in the balance,” Inslee said. “Fortunately, we’ve taken numerous steps in Washington to make sure patients in Washington are not subject to these horrors. Hospitals and clinics in Washington have become a haven for patients seeking the abortion care they can no longer access in other states. We will meet every challenge to women’s right of choice with an unwavering affirmation that Washington is and will remain a pro-choice state.”