Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against Joe Biden’s administration for requiring doctors to perform abortions in emergency cases.
On Monday, the Biden administration stated federal law allows women to receive an abortion in cases in which a mother’s health is at risk. In addition, he said doctors and hospitals are required to provide abortions in such instances.
In cases of health-related emergencies, the Department of Health and Human Services says the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act guarantees a person health care even for abortions despite a state’s abortion laws.
In response to the Biden administration, Texas’s attorney general Ken Paxton sued it over the mandate, calling the administration’s move illegal. On Thursday, the state of Texas asked the federal court to block the order.
In the lawsuit, Texas claims the Department of Health and Human Services is attempting “to use federal law to transform every emergency room in the country into a walk-in abortion clinic….”
“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,” said Paxton in a statement NBC News reports. “I will not allow him to undermine and distort existing laws to fit his administration’s unlawful agenda.”
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra says regardless of the laws of the land in any state, women have the right to emergency care.
“Under the law, no matter where you live, women have the right to emergency care — including abortion care,” said Xavier Becerra, NBC News reports. “Today, in no uncertain terms, we are reinforcing that we expect providers to continue offering these services, and that federal law preempts state abortion bans when needed for emergency care.”
