Texas Sues Biden Admin After Abortion Order
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra wrote a letter to health care providers telling them that they must provide abortions in cases of medical emergencies. If they didn’t follow the order their Medicare provider agreement could terminated or they could end up face financial penalties.
This order would go into effect in every state in the United States regardless of what abortion laws are on the books in those states.
Physicians must provide abortions in medical emergencies under federal law and will face penalties if they decline to offer the procedure in these cases, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra wrote in a letter to health care providers on Monday.
Becerra said federal law pre-empts state abortion bans in cases where women face medical emergencies associated with pregnancy under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. If an abortion is necessary to treat a woman facing a medical emergency, physicians must offer the procedure, the health secretary wrote.
Hospitals that decline to provide abortions in these cases could have their Medicare provider agreement terminated or face financial penalties, Becerra said. Individual physicians could also be cut from Medicare and state health programs if they refuse to offer abortions in medical emergencies, he added. Physicians can also use federal law as a defense if they face state prosecution when providing abortions in emergencies, according to HHS.
Texas has officially sued the Biden administration over this.
Texas on July 14 sued the federal government over a recent document that says abortions must be performed even if the procedures are not allowed by state laws.
The guidance amounts to an abortion mandate and is illegal because it violates multiple laws, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, said.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton spoke out on the lawsuit saying he’ll “ensure the left’s abortion agenda can’t reach TX babies.”
Is the Biden administration going to suffer another major loss in court?
No comments