WASHINGTON (AP) — A court order that says federal hospitals cannot be required to perform abortions if they violate a Texas abortion ban will stand for now, the Supreme Court said Monday.
The decision is another setback for opponents of Texas’ abortion ban, which has faced several legal challenges for two years, including from women who had solemn pregnancy complications and were turned away by doctors.
That makes Texas the only state where the Biden administration cannot enforce its interpretation of a federal law to ensure women continue to have access to emergency abortions when their health or life is in danger.
The justices did not specify their reasons for upholding a lower court ruling, and there were no publicly noted dissents. Texas had asked the justices to uphold the order, while the Biden administration had asked the justices to overturn it.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton called the decision “a major victory.”
The Biden administration argues that a federal law called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) requires emergency rooms to perform abortions when a pregnant patient’s health or life is at solemn risk, even in states where the procedure is prohibited is forbidden. The law only applies to emergency rooms that receive Medicare funding, which is the case for most hospitals.
The Supreme Court’s decision comes weeks before a presidential election in which Democratic candidate Kamala Harris has made abortion the centerpiece of her campaign and attacked Republican challenger Donald Trump for appointing justices to the Supreme Court that would overturn nationwide abortion rights had been lifted in 2022.
Texas’ abortion ban was a centerpiece of Democratic U.S. Rep. Colin Allred’s battle with Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cuz for his seat.
At a weekend campaign rally in Fort Worth, Texas, hundreds of Allred’s supporters erupted in thunderous applause as he promised to protect a woman’s right to an abortion. “When I’m in the Senate, we will restore Roe v. Wade,” Allred said.
At a separate event the same day in a nearby suburb, Cruz made a range of criticisms of Allred but did not bring up the abortion law.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday that “all patients — including women experiencing pregnancy loss and other pregnancy-related emergencies — must have access to the emergency medical care they need and as required by federal law.”
Complaints that pregnant women in medical distress are being turned away from emergency rooms in Texas and elsewhere have increased as hospitals wrestle with whether standard care could violate strict state laws against abortion. Several Texas women have filed complaints against hospitals for failing to terminate their failed and threatening pregnancies because of the state’s ban. In some cases, women lost reproductive organs.
In asking the Supreme Court to overturn the lower court’s decision, the government pointed to a similar case out of Idaho earlier this year in which the justices narrowly allowed emergency abortions to resume while a trial continued. When the Idaho case began, the state had an exception for a woman’s life, but not her health.
Texas said its case was different, however, because the law provides some exceptions when a pregnant patient’s health is at risk.
Texas pointed to a state Supreme Court ruling that doctors don’t have to wait until a woman’s life is in imminent danger to legally perform an abortion. But doctors have said the Texas law is dangerously vague, and a medical board has refused to list all the conditions that qualify for an exemption.
Marc Hearron, an attorney with the Center for Reproductive Rights, said doctors in Texas received no clarity from the Supreme Court on Monday.
“The health crisis continues,” Hearron said. “Patients will continue to suffer.”
Mary Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California, Davis, who has written extensively about abortion, said there remains great uncertainty for doctors in Texas who could risk life in prison for performing abortions.
“I think we’re going to continue to see doctors turning away patients, even patients who might fall under the state’s exemptions, because the consequences of making false guesses are so serious and the laws aren’t as clear,” Ziegler said.
The Texas case began after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, which led to abortion restrictions in many Republican-controlled states. The Biden administration issued guidance saying hospitals must continue to perform abortions in emergency situations because the health law requires most hospitals to treat patients in medical distress.
Texas sued over the policy, arguing that hospitals could not be required to perform abortions that would violate the ban. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the state and ruled in January that the government had overstepped its authority.
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a post
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Stengle contributed to this report from Dallas. AP reporters Amanda Seitz in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City and Aamer Madhani in Washington also contributed to this report.
