Texas AG Ken Paxton claims victory after court sides with state in abortion lawsuit against Biden admin

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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Wednesday hailed a federal judge’s decision to temporarily block the Biden administration from forcing hospitals to provide abortions services if the mother’s health or life was at risk. 

Paxton filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in July and moved for an injunction earlier this month. Paxton’s lawsuit argued that the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, a federal law commonly referred to as EMTALA, doesn't require doctors to provide abortions if doing so would violate a state law.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) and Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt talk to reporters after the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in their case about Title 42 on April 26, 2022 in Washington, D.C.  (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

In a ruling Tuesday, U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix temporarily blocked the government from enforcing the guidance in Texas, saying the guidance forces physicians to place the health of the pregnant person over that of the fetus or embryo even though EMTALA "is silent as to abortion." 

Paxton called the court’s decision to side with Texas a "crucial step in preventing Joe Biden and his radical pro-abortion Administration from breaking the law and threatening our entire healthcare industry by withholding federal funds." 

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"We’re not going to allow left-wing bureaucrats in Washington to transform our hospitals and emergency rooms into walk-in abortion clinics, and the decision last night proves what we knew all along: the law is on our side," Paxton said. "No matter how many backdoors Joe Biden attempts to go through to illegally force abortions in Texas, I will fight back to defend our pro-life laws and Texas mothers and children."

Demonstrators march and gather near the Texas state Capitol in Austin following the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022 (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

The Court concluded in its decision that the guidance extended beyond EMTALA’s authorizing Texas by discarding the requirement to consider the welfare of unborn children when determining how to stabilize a pregnant woman, by claiming to preempt state laws notwithstanding explicit provisions to the contrary and is interfering with the practice of medicine in violation of the Medicare Act.

The Department of Health and Human Services said it was reviewing the legal decision to determine its next steps. HHS issued the guidance in July, weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that abortion is not a constitutional right.

The agency cited EMTALA requirements on medical facilities to determine whether a person seeking treatment might be in labor or whether they face an emergency health situation — or one that could develop into an emergency — and to provide stabilizing treatment.

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Texas argued that the EMTALA guidelines also violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which says some laws must be narrowly tailored to serve a compelling government interest if they affect individuals' religious freedoms.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.