Staff Reports
According to the documents presented in court on Tuesday, the United States District Judge for the Northern District of Texas, James Hendrix, issued a ruling that temporarily halted an effort by Vice President Joe Biden to compel states to provide abortion services in specific emergent circumstances.
In an effort to circumvent state laws that prohibit abortions, Vice President Biden's Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued guidance in accordance with the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA). This law mandates that hospitals that receive funding from Medicare must offer emergency medical assistance. Hendrix put a stop to the guidance and temporarily prevented the HHS from applying its interpretation of EMTALA's provisions.
Since Texas law permits abortions to save the life of a mother as well as the removal of ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages, Hendrix argued that HHS's interpretation that EMTALA overrides Texas state law on abortion was incorrect. EMTALA only supersedes state abortion laws when the two are directly in conflict with one another. According to what he wrote, EMTALA protects mothers as well as their unborn children, does not address abortion, and does not teach medical professionals on how to balance the dangers to the lives of mothers and kids in the event of a medical emergency.
Biden is attempting to twist federal law to force abortions in TX. SCOTUS returned the issue to states. TX law protects pre-born life. Biden’s HHS is attempting to undo all that.
Not on my watch. I just filed suit. I’ll ensure the left’s abortion agenda can’t reach TX babies. pic.twitter.com/P84jlF893T
— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) July 14, 2022
Hendrix wrote in his decision that the guidance "discards the requirement to consider the welfare of unborn children when determining how to stabilize a pregnant woman; it claims to preempt state laws notwithstanding explicit provisions to the contrary; and it impermissibly interferes with the practice of medicine in violation of the Medicare Act." Hendrix's decision was based on the fact that the guidance "discards the requirement to consider the welfare of unborn children when determining how to stabilize a pregnant woman." "Because HHS's Guidance is a statement of policy that establishes or changes a substantive legal standard, it likewise was subject to notice and comment requirements— unfulfilled here.”
Research, advocacy, and legal action are the three pillars of Vice President Joe Biden's strategy to advance abortion rights. As part of this strategy, Biden attempted to use EMTALA to circumvent state abortion prohibitions.
The White House did not provide a comment in response to a request for one made by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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