After President Joe Biden signaled his administration would enforce the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) announced he is suing the Biden Administration for infringing on Texas’s state rights.
The law would protect all doctors across the nation who perform life-saving abortions. Paxton’s lawsuit comes after the Biden Administration imposed on what Paxton calls Texas’ “sovereign interest.”
A memo sent out to hospitals stated, “If a physician believes that a pregnant patient presenting at an emergency department is experiencing an emergency medical condition as defined by EMTALA, and that abortion is the stabilizing treatment necessary to resolve that condition, the physician must provide that treatment.”
Following Biden’s executive order intended to bolster abortion protections, the administration also emphasized that pharmacies must fill prescriptions for medical abortion pills. Anyone found violating the act could face a civil rights lawsuit from the government.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a statement about the law.
“Today, following President Biden’s Executive Order on ensuring access to reproductive health care, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is issuing guidance to roughly 60,000 U.S. retail pharmacies, reminding them of their obligations under federal civil rights laws,” the statement read.
The order will encompass Medicaid and Medicare and would not exclude any healthcare programs.
“[The law] includes supplying prescribed medications; making determinations regarding the suitability of prescribed medications for a patient; and advising a patient about prescribed medications and how to take them,” the statement continued.
