The Supreme Court has upheld a lower-court ruling that blocks the Biden administration from requiring Texas hospitals to provide emergency abortion care.
The Supreme Court has decided not to overturn a lower-court ruling that prevents the Biden administration from enforcing its policy on emergency abortion care in Texas. The administration had directed hospitals to provide abortions in medical emergencies or risk losing federal funding. However, Texas challenged this policy, arguing that it violated the state's abortion ban.
The Biden administration's request to reconsider the case was rejected by the justices, leaving the lower court’s decision in place. This ruling had struck down the Department of Health and Human Services’ guidance, which stated that federal law requires hospitals to offer abortion care in emergencies, even in states where abortion is banned.
This is a setback for the administration's efforts to maintain some access to abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
The court's move avoids adding another abortion case to its docket for now, following two major abortion-related cases last term, including one from Idaho that raised similar issues.
The ruling leaves questions about whether federally-funded hospitals must offer emergency abortions under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) unresolved. Texas, joined by other plaintiffs, successfully argued that EMTALA does not override state abortion bans. The US Solicitor General, Elizabeth Prelogar, had asked the Supreme Court to reconsider, but the request was denied.
A similar case from Idaho also challenged whether state abortion bans can restrict emergency care. Last term, the justices ruled that the Idaho case was taken up prematurely and sent it back to lower courts for further consideration.