Texas sued the federal government Thursday over new guidelines from the Biden administration ordering hospitals to perform emergency abortions regardless of state bans on the procedure.
These state bans went into effect after the US Supreme Court overturned its landmark 1973 Roe v Wade decision.
Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton alleged in the lawsuit that the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is trying to “use federal law to transform every emergency room in the country into an abortion clinic.”
HHS did not respond to requests for comment.
The lawsuit centers on guidelines issued Monday advising that a federal law protecting patient access to emergency care requires abortions to be performed when doctors believe a pregnant woman’s life or health is at risk.
The guidelines came after Joe Biden, a Democrat, signed an executive order on Friday aimed at making it easier to access abortion services after the Supreme Court on June 24 overturned Roe v. Wade, which recognized women’s nationwide right to abortion.
Abortion services were suspended in Texas after the state’s highest court on July 2, at Paxton’s urging, cleared the way for a nearly century-old abortion ban to go into effect.
HHS said the guidance from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not constitute new policy, but merely reminds doctors of their obligations under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act.
But in the lawsuit filed in Lubbock, the Republican-led state of Texas argued that federal law never authorized the federal government to force doctors and hospitals to perform abortions and that the guidelines were illegal.
White House press secretary Karin Jean-Pierre said in a statement that it was “unthinkable that this public servant would sue to block women from receiving life-saving care in emergency rooms, a right protected by US law.”
About half of the states are expected to take measures to restrict or ban abortion. Thirteen states, including Texas, had so-called “trigger” laws on the books designed to go into effect if Roe v. Wade was overturned.
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