Brief: Colorado Legislature Considers Bill to Require Hospitals Provide Emergency Services to All Who Come In

The Colorado legislature is currently weighing a bill that would mandate that hospitals’ emergency departments, which include delivery and labor departments, provide care for patients regardless of their ability to pay or other qualities. 

Senate Bill 130 would require that hospitals provide care for patients regardless of immigration status or if they are pregnant and would need an abortion to save their life, or whether they can pay or not. 

The legislation is modeled after the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), a federal law passed in the 1980s that bears the same requirements. However, EMTALA has been weakened with recent court rulings that declared certain provisions, particularly in mandating access to emergency reproductive care, could not be enforced by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). 

Kiera Hatton, the Political Director for COBALT Advocates, said in an interview with 9News that a state law like this one is needed, considering that the federal EMTALA law and its enforcement are increasingly being challenged in the courts. 

“There are many cases of patients needing to be transported from one hospital to another because the hospital is not comfortable performing the procedure that is required to treat the patient,” Hatton said. “And that works pretty well in metropolitan areas, but in areas where it’s more rural, we find patients are having to travel many hours to get to a facility where they can get the treatment they need in a timely fashion.”

After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, the HHS initially issued guidance to healthcare providers that EMTALA superseded state laws that banned abortions, protecting doctors who provide emergency abortive care are protected under the act. 

Senate Bill 130 is being sponsored by Democratic State Sens. Julie Gonzales of Denver and Mike Weissman of Aurora, as well as Reps. Meg Froelich of Englewood and Yara Zokaie of Fort Collins. 

“The people of Colorado deserve safe and accessible access to abortion and miscarriage care without exception, especially when lives are at stake in emergency situations,” said Sen. Gonzales in a statement. “We owe it to all Coloradans, and particularly the Coloradans most negatively impacted by barriers to reproductive care, to ensure that emergency care is always granted, no questions asked.”