Texas sues health secretary over emergency abortion guidance
The state of Texas sued the federal government Thursday after the Biden administration said federal rules require hospitals to provide abortions if the procedure is necessary to save a mother’s life, even in cases where state law mostly bans the procedure.
The lawsuit, which names the Department of Health and Human Services and Secretary Xavier Becerra among its defendants, says the guidance issued by the Biden administration earlier this week is unlawful, and that the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act does not cover abortions.
“The Biden Administration seeks to transform every emergency room in the country into a walk-in abortion clinic,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said as he announced the lawsuit. He said the federal government isn’t authorized to require emergency healthcare providers to perform abortions.
The legal wrangling is causing concern for doctors. Dr. Ghazaleh Moayedi, a Dallas-based OB/GYN and former abortion provider, said emergency departments may face these situations frequently — when patients experience miscarriages or ectopic pregnancies, or when a woman's water breaks before a fetus is viable.
“Physicians shouldn’t be forced to call a lawyer, call an ethicist, call another lawyer, call a hospital administrator while a patient is actively dying,” she said. “It is unconscionable.”
The lawsuit comes after the Biden administration told hospitals on Monday that they “must” provide abortion services if the life of the mother is at risk, saying federal law on emergency treatment guidelines preempts state laws that have near total bans on the procedure, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that abortion is not a constitutional right.
In a letter to providers, the Department of Health and Human Services said medical facilities are required to...
