Federal Court Allows Texas To Ban Emergency Abortions

The conservative-dominated 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled late Tuesday that Texas hospitals and physicians are not required by federal law to perform abortions under emergency circumstances.

The 25-page decision stems from a legal challenge that Texas filed in response to guidance issued in July 2022 by the U.S. Health and Human Services Department. The guidance states that the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) “protects providers when offering legally-mandated, life- or health-saving abortion services in emergency situations.”

“If a state law prohibits abortion and does not include an exception for the health or life of the pregnant person—or draws the exception more narrowly than EMTALA’s emergency medical condition definition—that state law is preempted,” reads the guidance, which was published shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade.

Texas sued the federal government days after the guidance was released, arguing that the Biden administration was attempting to “compel healthcare providers to perform abortions.” In August 2022, a federal judge blocked the guidance from taking effect in Texas, where state law allows private individuals to sue abortion providers and those who help people obtain abortions.

On Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit—including two appointees of former President Donald Trump—affirmed the judge’s decision. The U.S. Justice Department can appeal the ruling.

Rochelle Garza, president of the Texas Civil Rights Project and a former state attorney general candidate, wrote on social media that the 5th Circuit’s ruling is “deeply disturbing.”

“Hospitals and doctors should not have their hands tied when attempting to provide life-saving care for their patients,” Garza continued. “This cruelty, spearheaded by [Texas Attorney General Ken] Paxton, puts women in life-threatening danger.”

Abortion is almost completely banned in Texas, with the procedure only legally permitted when the life of the mother is at risk.

In practice, that exception has not protected people who have experienced life-threatening complications during their pregnancies. As the Texas Tribune noted, “doctors, and their patients with medically complex pregnancies, have struggled with implementing the medical exception, reportedly delaying or denying abortion care rather than risk up to life in prison and the loss of their license.”

Last summer, a group of women sued Texas officials over the state’s draconian abortion ban. The lead plaintiff in the case almost died from sepsis after she was denied abortion care when her water broke at 18 weeks.

Since Texas’ six-week abortion ban took effect, infant deaths have spiked by over 10% as the law forces people to carry nonviable pregnancies to term. Last month, Texas resident Kate Cox traveled out of state to obtain abortion care after Texas’ high court blocked an order enabling her to terminate her pregnancy. The fetus was diagnosed with a fatal condition, and Cox’s doctor told the Texas Supreme Court that the pregnancy put her life at risk.

Texas law prohibits abortion based on the nonviability of the fetus.

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) called the 5th Circuit’s ruling “a horrifying and astonishingly dangerous decision from a court that has shown repeatedly they have absolutely no regard for women’s lives or understanding of the realities of pregnancy.”

“We’re seeing far-right judges working to deny women emergency abortion care even when their lives are in danger,” said Murray, a lead sponsor of the Women’s Health Protection Act. “Every American should be outraged at the never-ending crusade by Republicans to force women to stay pregnant no matter what—the bottom line is that we need a pro-choice majority in Congress that will restore Roe and every woman’s right to abortion and stop politicians from interfering in private health care decisions that should be made by women and their doctors.”