adminA federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that the Biden administration can’t enforce guidance meant to protect abortion access in life-threatening or health-saving situations even where abortion is banned.
The guidance from the US Department of Health and Human Services says that medical providers who are required to provide emergency care to pregnant patients regardless of their ability to pay for it under a 1986 law must also provide abortion services in life-threatening or health-saving situations and will be protected if those actions violate state law.
It was one of the administration’s preemptive strikes in its response to the US Supreme Court’s 2022 reversal of Roe v. Wade.
Texas challenged the guidance in federal court. A judge last year blocked HHS from enforcing the guidance in Texas or against members of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians & Gynecologists or Christian Medical & Dental Associations.
“The question before the court is whether EMTALA, according to HHS’s Guidance, mandates physicians to provide abortions when that is the necessary stabilizing treatment for an emergency medical condition. It does not. We therefore decline to expand the scope of EMTALA,” a three-judge panel of the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals said in a unanimous ruling.
The judges who issued Tuesday’s ruling were all appointed by Republican presidents.
Read the full article here
