Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has secured a significant victory in protecting the rights of Texas hospitals and doctors to refuse to provide abortions that are prohibited by state law. The Supreme Court of the United States (“SCOTUS”) has declined to hear arguments in a case seeking to overturn an injunction that prevents the Biden-Harris Administration from enforcing unlawful abortion guidance. The injunction will remain in place.
The guidance issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) unlawfully attempted to compel medical providers to perform abortions in violation of state law. The Biden-Harris Administration tried to do so under a federal law called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). This law, enacted by Congress to ensure that hospitals do not refuse essential emergency medical care due to a patient’s inability to pay, does not mention abortion. However, the Administration used it as a pretext to try to force medical providers to provide and perform abortions. If the HHS guidance had taken effect, Texas doctors and medical institutions could have faced severe financial consequences, such as being excluded from Medicare, for refusing to violate state law in order to comply with the unconstitutional federal mandate.
In July 2022, Attorney General Paxton sued the Biden-Harris Administration over their guidance. In August 2022, a federal district court issued an injunction blocking the unlawful guidance. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld the injunction in January 2024. Now, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) has refused to take up the Biden-Harris Administration’s attempt to reverse the injunction.
“This is a major victory at SCOTUS that will protect Texas medical providers from being forced to violate State law,” said Attorney General Paxton. “No Texas doctor should be forced to violate his or her conscience or the law just to do their job. We successfully sued and stopped the Biden-Harris Administration’s backdoor attempt to overrule State abortion laws.”
To read the order, click here.
