A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that the Biden administration cannot enforce federal guidance directing doctors to provide abortion care in medical emergencies, regardless of state law.
The lawsuit, filed by the state of Texas in 2022, is based on the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Actions Act (EMTALA), which the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) states in its guidance that health care providers must provide ante-mortem abortion care. It is claimed that it cannot be quoted. save the situation.
HHS guidance, written on the heels of the Supreme Court's 2022 abortion decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, requires health care providers to provide care when patients cannot afford it and to ensure that the patient's life is at risk. It says they must both provide abortion care if they are at risk.
The Court of Appeals ruled that only the first provision, regarding patients who cannot afford treatment, was relevant to federal guidance.
“The question before the court is whether, in accordance with HHS guidance, EMTALA requires physicians to perform abortions when the treatment is necessary to stabilize an emergency medical condition. It is not. Therefore, we “We decline to expand the scope of EMTALA,” said Judge Kurt Engelhardt. The unanimous decision read:.
Engelhardt ruled that the 1986 law did not specify any medical procedures and that guidance focused on abortion was unfounded.
A federal judge in Texas blocked the Biden administration's guidelines for the first time in 2022, and an appeals court upheld that ruling on Tuesday.
In May, HHS launched investigations into two hospitals in Kansas and Missouri for allegedly violating guidelines.
The Biden administration also cited EMTALA in November when challenging Idaho's strict abortion regulations. Idaho similarly argued that EMTALA does not cover abortion. The state's ban is under appeal.
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