A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision has done little to clear the confusion over medically necessary abortions, but Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has called it a “major victory.”
“The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) declined to hear arguments in a case seeking to overturn an injunction preventing the Biden-Harris Administration from enforcing unlawful abortion guidance. The injunction will remain in place,” a press release from Paxton’s office reads.
In July 2022, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued guidance to hospitals that receive Medicare funding — and most do — stating that under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) adopted in 1986, emergency room physicians “must” provide abortions if a pregnant patient’s health or life is at risk, even if the procedure is banned in that state.
“When a state law prohibits abortion and does not include an exception for the life of the pregnant person — or draws the exception more narrowly than EMTALA’s emergency medical condition definition — that state law is preempted,” the letter said, per the Associated Press.
The State of Texas disagreed with that interpretation of the EMTALA, and Paxton promptly filed suit against the Department of Human Health and Services and the Biden-Harris administration. The lawsuit claimed that the EMTALA does not specifically mandate or direct any specific treatment and does not mention abortion.
“On the contrary, EMTALA contemplates that an emergency medical condition is one that threatens the life of the unborn child,” the lawsuit says. “It is obvious that abortion does not preserve the life or health of an unborn child.”
In August 2022, a U.S. district judge ruled in favor of Texas, ordering an injunction against the federal guidelines. The Biden-Harris Administration appealed that ruling, and in January of this year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit likewise ruled in favor of Texas, upholding the lower court’s injunction.
The Biden administration then appealed to the Supreme Court, but on Monday, the highest court chose not to hear arguments in the case, allowing the injunction to remain in place. The court did not comment on its reasoning in the decision and did not state whether there were any dissenting views.
“This is a major victory at SCOTUS that will protect Texas medical providers from being forced to violate State law,” Paxton said in a news release. “No Texas doctor should be forced to violate his or her conscience or the law just to do their job. We successfully sued and stopped the Biden-Harris Administration’s backdoor attempt to overrule State abortion laws.”
Although the Texas law banning abortions does allow for exceptions if a pregnant mother’s health is at risk, doctors have complained that the law is too vague, and the Texas Medical Board has refused to provide a clarifying list of specific exemptions. A doctor who is convicted of providing an illegal abortion in Texas could be sentenced to up to 99 years in prison, fined $100,000, and lose his or her medical license. This confusion has led some doctors to refuse to perform abortions altogether, as AP reported.