To the Editor:

As a cardiac intensive-care-unit nurse at NewYork-Presbyterian Weill Cornell and as chair of our hospital’s Critical Care Policies and Procedures Committee, I have spent countless nights stabilizing patients whose lives hang in the balance.

In those moments, no one asks about political affiliation, state law, or ideology — we act quickly, compassionately, and according to evidence-based practice to save a life. That is the ethical core of emergency medicine.

That’s why the recent decision by the Trump administration to rescind the federal guidance clarifying how EMTALA applies to emergency abortion care is not just a political maneuver — it’s a direct threat to patient safety and a profound rollback of women’s human rights.

Let me be clear: EMTALA, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, exists to ensure that every person who arrives at a hospital in crisis — regardless of their income, insurance status, or circumstance — receives screening and stabilization. For pregnant patients experiencing life-threatening complications, this includes abortion care when it is the only way to save their life or prevent serious harm.

By removing this guidance, the federal government is sowing confusion and fear in emergency departments nationwide. It is placing physicians and nurses in the impossible position of choosing between upholding federal law and obeying restrictive state bans.

It is threatening patients’ lives in the most vulnerable moments. And it is telling women, once again, that their bodies are political battlegrounds rather than sovereign ground.

I am also a farmer — owner of Two Rock Ranch in upstate New York — where I raise and deliver life daily. I know what it means to safeguard the fragile beginning of life, but I also know that true care means honoring the person who carries it.

When we strip away emergency protections for pregnant people, we are no longer protecting life. We are weaponizing it.

Emergency rooms are not courtrooms. Decisions made there must remain grounded in medical necessity and human dignity — not political fear.

We owe our patients clarity, safety, and respect. And we owe it to ourselves — as caregivers, citizens, and human beings — to say that this rollback is unacceptable.

Emily Vincent

Cardiac ICU Nurse

NYP Weill Cornell

Chair, Critical Care

Policies and Procedures Committee

Owner

Two Rock Ranch

Berne