Paxton sues Biden administration over emergency rooms performing abortion to save a life

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is asking a federal court to block a Biden administration order to hospitals to provide abortion services if the life of a pregnant patient is at risk.

The lawsuit filed Thursday against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services comes after the agency's head told hospitals in a July 11 letter that they must provide life-saving treatment, including abortion if necessary, to patients needing emergency care.

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra cited the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, which requires medical facilities to treat people who are in labor, in an emergency health situation or in a situation that might become a medical emergency. Becerra wrote that emergency medical conditions could include ab ectopic pregnancy, complications of pregnancy loss or emergent hypertensive disorders.

"Thus, if a physician believes that a pregnant patient presenting at an emergency department, including certain labor and delivery departments, is experiencing an emergency medical condition as defined by EMTALA (Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act), and that abortion is the stabilizing treatment necessary to resolve that condition, the physician must provide that treatment," Becerra wrote.

Paxton's lawsuit called the Becerra letter and July 11 guidance from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services "The Abortion Mandate" and said the mandate requires providers to do something that was never part of the act. The attorney general called for the guidance to be declared "unlawful, unconstitutional and unenforceable."

Abortion is banned in Texas under a 1925 law that took effect again after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24. An abortion ban passed by the Legislature last year will take effect later this summer. That ban's only exception is when the life of the pregnant person is in jeopardy.

Noting that the emergency medical treatment act does not mention access to abortion, the lawsuit said it is within the states' power to regulate and prohibit abortion. It argues, "To the contrary, EMTALA 'do(es) not preempt any State or local law requirement, except to the extent that the requirement directly conflicts with a requirement of'" the federal act.

The lawsuit is the latest effort by Republican-led states to keep abortion restrictions and further restrict access to the procedure after the Supreme Court ended constitutional protections for abortion and returned the issue of abortion access to the states.

In a Thursday tweet, Paxton said: "SCOTUS returned the issue (of abortion) to states. TX law protects pre-born life. Biden's HHS is attempting to undo all that."

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O'Rourke's campaign called the lawsuit an example of Gov. Greg Abbott's "dangerous extremism." O'Rourke said in a Thursday press release: “Greg Abbott is responsible for America’s most extreme abortion ban with no exception for rape or incest. Under his watch, this state is now trying to prevent doctors from providing an abortion even in cases where women would die without one."

The Biden administration faced calls for executive action to protect abortion access, which led to a July 8 executive order that tasked Health and Human Services to identify potential actions to protect and expand access to abortion care and reproductive health care services. The executive order also asked the department to share information about free or reduced cost reproductive health care services through government-funded health centers, among other points regarding patient care and privacy.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Paxton sues to keep emergency rooms from providing abortion care