The Senate Health and Homelessness Committee advanced a resolution that would reaffirm the state’s commitment to require hospitals to provide abortion care when it is necessary to stabilize the patient.
It’s a federal policy called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. However, for clinicians in states that have passed anti-abortion laws, it’s been difficult to understand what is still allowed, and it has led to delays in care.
Hawaiʻi Public Health Institute Policy and Advocacy Associate Kris Coffield testified in support of the resolution.
“We should note here that reproductive care is health care, and this resolution helps to address legal confusion,” he said.
“There was a study that came out in 2025 examining EMTALA and obstetric emergencies, and it found that state abortion laws may undermine federally protected emergency care or conflict with federally protected emergency care and create this unnecessary, uncertain climate for clinicians who are attempting to comply with EMTALA stabilization requirements when it comes to reproductive care. This state has a long legacy of protecting reproductive rights. This is just another step in that legacy.”
Hawaiʻi legalized abortion in 1970. It also has laws in place that protect abortion access and bar out-of-state investigations of abortion providers.
The resolution will next be heard by the full Senate.
