The US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) released new guidance Monday, requiring that providers allow abortion in emergency cases where the mother’s life is in danger, even in states that ban abortion. DHHS issued the guidance under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) and President Joe Biden’s new executive order.

Biden’s executive order required DHHS Director Xavier Becerra to protect access to contraceptives, protect abortion via prescription medication, and release new guidance in an effort to protect abortion access. Prior to the latest guidelines, Becerra and DHHS launched a website showing where abortions are legal and illegal and in what ways they are legal and illegal, met with healthcare providers to discuss the EMTALA, and allotted further funding to family planning programs.

The newly released guidelines state:

Emergency medical conditions involving pregnant patients may include, but are not limited to: ectopic pregnancy, complications of pregnancy loss, or emergent hypertensive disorders, such as preeclampsia with severe features. The course of treatment necessary to stabilize such emergency medical conditions is also under the purview of the physician or other qualified medical personnel. Stabilizing treatment could include medical and/or surgical interventions…

The guidelines also state that, “[a]ny state that has a more restrictive definition of emergency medical condition or that has a definition that directly conflicts with any definition above is preempted by the EMTALA statute.”

The guidelines were released along with a letter to healthcare providers from Becerra. Becerra warned providers that

…if a physician believes that a pregnant patient presenting at an emergency department, including certain labor and delivery departments, is experiencing an emergency medical condition as defined by EMTALA, and that abortion is the stabilizing treatment necessary to resolve that condition, the physician must provide that treatment.

Becerra went on to state that DHHS would pursue penalties for physicians and hospitals that did not follow the new guidelines.