After the Department of Health and Human Services issued instructions this week stating that doctors are obligated to provide an abortion if a pregnant woman’s life is in danger, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration on Thursday.
The lawsuit, which names Health Secretary Xavier Becerra and other officials as defendants, claims that President Biden is blatantly disregarding the legislative and democratic processes—as well as disobeying the Supreme Court’s decision before the ink is dry—by having his appointed bureaucrats mandate that hospitals and emergency medicine physicians must perform abortions.
Becerra gave advice to medical professionals on Monday, stating in a letter that the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act requires doctors to perform abortions if they are the only therapy required to address an urgent medical condition.
The letter written by Becerra stated, “When a state law prohibits abortion and does not include an exception for the life and health of the pregnant person — or draws the exception more narrowly than EMTALA’s emergency medical condition definition — that state law is preempted.”
The administration’s interpretation is overly broad, according to Paxton, who said in a statement on Thursday afternoon, that it compels abortions in a whole new set of situations.
Additionally, the Hyde Amendment, which forbids the use of government funds for abortions except in cases of rape, incest, or imminent risk to the woman’s life, is in contradiction with the Abortion Mandate.
The action was filed roughly three weeks after the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade, opening the door for the first time in fifty years for states to impose harsh abortion restrictions.
In Texas, a trigger legislation that forbids all abortions unless a pregnancy puts the woman at risk of death or offers a real risk of substantially impairing a key bodily function will take effect in the coming weeks.
Texas previously enacted a legislation preventing almost all abortions after six weeks last year.
On Thursday, a question about the complaint was not immediately answered by the Department of Health and Human Services.
