Texas contests federal order to grant life-saving abortions
Al JazeeraUS state sues Biden administration over guidance directing doctors to perform abortions when pregnant patients at risk. The US state of Texas has sued the Biden administration over recent federal guidelines directing doctors to perform emergency abortions in cases where the life of a pregnant patient is at risk. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced the lawsuit on Thursday, accusing the Biden administration of attempting to “transform every emergency room in the country into a walk-in abortion clinic”. “If a physician believes that a pregnant patient presenting at an emergency department is experiencing an emergency medical condition … and that abortion is the stabilizing treatment necessary to resolve that condition, the physician must provide that treatment.” The lawsuit is the latest example of the legal battles being waged to shape the post-Roe landscape in the US, as conservative states push for restrictions and the federal government and liberal states look for ways to maintain access to abortion. A judge had previously blocked Texas officials from enforcing a dormant 1925 state abortion ban that Paxton said was back in effect following the Supreme Court’s decision last month to overturn Roe.