U.S. Supreme Court rebuffs Biden administration’s appeal challenging Texas abortion law

  The U.S. Supreme Court has  declined to hear an appeal from the Biden administration  challenging the Texas abortion law. In July 2022, Te...

 The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal from the Biden administration challenging the Texas abortion law.

In July 2022, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against the Department of Human and Health Services (HHS) guidelines regarding the 1986 federal law, dubbed as Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). Under EMTALA, the HHS requires hospitals that receive Medicare funding to provide necessary treatment for pregnant women in an emergency condition. The HHS defines emergency medical care in such situations as ectopic pregnancies, severe complications from miscarriages and severe pre-eclampsia.

However, Paxton argued that the new abortion-related requirements would only turn emergency rooms in hospitals into "walk-in abortion clinics."

"This administration has a hard time following the law, and now they are trying to have their appointed bureaucrats mandate that hospitals and emergency medicine physicians perform abortions," Paxton said at the time.  Initially, the district court and the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Texas. The courts ruled that the Texas Human Life Protection Act, which bans abortions except in cases where the mother's life is at risk, was not preempted by EMTALA. However, the HHS filed an appeal to the Supreme Court, pointing to a similar case in Idaho where a court ruled that doctors could perform emergency abortions as litigation continued.

Fortunately, the Supreme Court upheld the ruling from the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Paxton sues the HHS to block proposed rule that would hide abortion info from criminal investigations

In September, Paxton also filed a lawsuit against the HSS, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and other officials of the Biden regime in the Federal District Court in Lubbock, Texas to block a newly proposed rule.

The rule, which restricts access to medical reproductive health records from criminal investigations on women who cross state lines to seek abortion, was modified by the HHS under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) earlier this year. In the past, HIPAA allowed the sharing of personal health information (PHI) in specific cases, such as public health investigations or law enforcement investigations. But the new rule would limit the disclosure of PHI if it would be about medical reproductive health records.

HHS claimed that the rule would safeguard the privacy of women's reproductive health. However, Paxton argued that the rule would only obstruct the ability of the state to investigate potential criminal activities related to abortion, such as illegal procedures or malpractice

"This new rule actively undermines Congress' clear statutory meaning when HIPAA was passed, and it reflects the Biden administration's disrespect for the law. The federal government is attempting to undermine Texas' law enforcement capabilities and I will not allow this to happen," Paxton said.