WASHINGTON — The Biden administration told doctors and other health care providers on Tuesday that they are legally obligated to perform abortions for pregnant women experiencing medical emergencies.

Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure sent a letter to providers reminding them of their “legal duty” to offer necessary stabilizing medical treatment, including abortions, to all patients at hospitals that participate in Medicare, the U.S. health-care program for seniors. The protections have been in place for 40 years, they wrote.

The move comes after a Supreme Court ruling last week that prevented Idaho from enforcing an abortion ban in medical emergencies. Idaho has one of the most restrictive policies in the U.S., making it a crime to perform abortions for health emergencies unless it’s to save the woman’s life.

The state law clashed with the Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act, or EMTALA, designed to ensure that hospitals provide emergency treatment regardless of a patient’s ability to pay.

The tension between EMTALA and Idaho’s near-total abortion ban has created problems for doctors and hospitals who say patients receive poor quality care because of the uncertainty created by laws that threaten doctors with the revocation of their medical license or prison time.

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