Anti-abortion OB-GYNs react to court victory in Texas case
Gabrielle M. Etzel
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The anti-abortion physicians group that sued the Biden administration over abortion restrictions in Texas praised a ruling from the United States Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit on Tuesday that found that federal regulations do not grant an absolute right to abortion.
In July 2022, the Biden administration issued new guidance interpreting the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTALA, to allow for induced abortions to stabilize a patient when necessary in an emergency situation regardless of state law banning elective abortions.
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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, along with two private associations, the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Christian Medical and Dental Associations, sued the Department of Health and Human Services shortly after the rule was published, arguing that it unduly superseded state authority.
Judge Kurt Engelhardt wrote a unanimous decision for the 5th Circuit finding that EMTALA “does not provide an unqualified right for the pregnant mother to abort her child.”
“In an abuse of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), the Biden Administration previously attempted to force physicians to perform induced abortions in violation of their oath they took to never intentionally harm their patients,” a spokesperson for AAPLOG told the Washington Examiner. “The Fifth Circuit’s decision to uphold the injunction against this overreach means that our members can continue to provide excellent medical care that respects the dignity of both pregnant women and their preborn children.”
AAPLOG maintains that emergency procedures that result in unintentional demise or other emergency procedures, such as the removal of an ectopic or molar pregnancy, are categorically different than elective or induced abortions.
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“Induced abortion, the sole purpose of which is to end the life of our preborn patient, is not healthcare, and our members regularly treat serious pregnancy complications without it, which is entirely possible to do under existing Texas law,” the AAPLOG representative said. “This includes being able to perform maternal-fetal separations when a woman’s life is endangered by a pregnancy complication — something that is already allowed by the current EMTALA regulation as well as by every state law in the country.”
The Biden administration may choose to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court, which recently agreed to review the 5th Circuit’s decision to uphold certain restrictions on the Food and Drug Administration‘s approval of the abortion pill mifepristone.