A federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that the Biden administration, regardless of state law, cannot enforce federal guidance ordering doctors to offer abortion care in medical crises.
The state of Texas filed the lawsuit in 2022, claiming that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) cannot cite the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) in its guidance requiring medical professionals to offer abortion care in life-saving situations.
The HHS guidance, issued shortly after the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade abortion decision in 2022, stated that medical practitioners must both offer care when a patient cannot afford it and provide abortion care when the patient’s life is in danger.
The appeal court decided that only the first section, relating to patients who are unable to pay for care, is relevant for federal advice.
“The issue before the court is whether EMTALA, according to HHS Guidance, requires physicians to provide abortions when it is the only way to stabilize an emergency medical condition.” No, it does not. “As a result, we decline to broaden the scope of EMTALA,” wrote Judge Kurt Engelhardt in the unanimous opinion.
Engelhardt determined that because the 1986 statute does not define any medical treatments, the guidance’s abortion-focused part is baseless.
A federal judge in Texas initially banned the Biden administration guidance in 2022, and an appeals court upheld that decision on Tuesday.
In May, the HHS initiated an investigation against two hospitals in Kansas and Missouri on suspicion of violating the guidance.
In November, the Biden administration utilized the EMTALA in a challenge to Idaho’s stringent abortion laws. Similarly, Idaho maintained that the EMTALA did not apply to abortion. The state’s ban is being challenged.