Texas on Thursday sued the federal government for a new direction from the Biden administration ordering hospitals to provide emergency abortions, regardless of state bans on the procedure.
These state bans went into effect following the revocation by the U.S. Supreme Court of its historic 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.
Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton in the lawsuit argued that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) was trying to “use federal law to transform all of the country’s emergency rooms into a clinic.” abortion without appointment “.
HHS did not respond to requests for comment.
The lawsuit focused on guidelines issued Monday that reported that a federal law that protects patients’ access to emergency treatment requires performing abortions when doctors believe a pregnant woman’s life or health is threatened.
The move came after Democrat Joe Biden signed an executive order on Friday seeking to facilitate access to services to terminate a pregnancy after the Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade ruling on June 24. it recognized the right of women to have abortions throughout the country.
Abortion services ceased in Texas after the state’s highest court on July 2, at Paxton’s urging, enacted a ban on abortion a century ago.
HHS said its agency’s guidelines for the U.S. Medicare and Medicaid Service Centers did not constitute a new policy, but only reminded physicians of their obligations under the Emergency and Occupational Medical Treatment Act. active.
But in the lawsuit filed in Lubbock, the Republican-led state of Texas argued that federal law has never authorized the federal government to force doctors and hospitals to perform abortions and that the guide was illegal.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in a statement called it “unthinkable for this public official to denounce to prevent women from receiving life-saving care in emergency rooms, a right protected by the American law. “
About half of the states are expected to move to restrict or ban abortions. Thirteen states, including Texas, had so-called “detonating” laws in books designed to go into effect if Roe v Wade was overturned.