Supreme Court won’t decide Texas dispute over emergency abortions

Washington — The Supreme Court on Monday turned away a clash between a federal emergency care law and Texas’ near-total ban on abortion, declining to provide clarity over whether states with the most restrictive laws must provide abortion care in certain emergency circumstances.

The court’s rejection of the Biden administration’s appeal leaves in place a lower court decision that blocked the federal government from enforcing guidance it issued to hospitals notifying them that they must provide emergency abortions if the health of the mother is at risk. The Department of Health and Human Services told health care providers in a July 2022 letter that when a state abortion law does not include an exception for the life and health of the mother, that measure is preempted by the federal emergency care law. 

The order comes months after the high court dismissed a similar appeal from Idaho, which put back in place a lower court order that blocked the state from enforcing its near-total abortion ban when the procedure is needed to preserve the health of the mother.

The cases have pitted two of the nation’s most severe abortion measures against a federal law that requires Medicare-funded hospitals to offer abortions when needed to stabilize a patient’s emergency medical condition. In Texas, abortion is banned except when the life of the mother is at risk.

In the Idaho case, the Supreme Court’s decision indicated that the majority believed the court intervened too early. The justices did not address the underlying question of whether the federal law, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, trumps near-total bans in certain circumstances.

The Texas dispute provided the high court with another opportunity to answer that question, though it declined to do so.