TEXAS, USA — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing the Biden administration and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on claims that they are using the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) to require hospitals to provide abortion care.
According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, EMTALA works to "ensure public access to emergency services regardless of ability to pay" through actions such as a requirement "to provide stabilizing treatment for patients with EMCs," or emergency medical conditions.
Paxton said in a release Thursday that EMTALA doesn't give the federal government the authority to require abortions from emergency healthcare providers.
“I will ensure that President Biden will be forced to comply with the Supreme Court’s important decision concerning abortion and I will not allow him to undermine and distort existing laws to fit his administration’s unlawful agenda," Paxton said in a statement.
Last month, the Supreme Court wrote an opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, ending the constitutional right to abortion. Paxton closed his offices across the state that day and declared it an agency holiday in honor of what he called the babies lost to abortion.
Since then, Paxton has asked the U.S. Attorney General to investigate threats against groups opposing abortion rights and filed an emergency motion to end a Harris County restraining order on the state's pre-Roe v. Wade ban on abortion.
Click here for more information on the Biden administration's decision.
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