WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday upheld a ruling that outlawed emergency abortions in Texas, which has one of the nation’s strictest abortion bans.
The justices did not elaborate on their reasons for upholding a lower court order that said hospitals cannot be required to terminate pregnancies if they would violate Texas law. No public dissents noted.
The decision comes weeks before a presidential election where abortion is a major issue after a 2022 high court ruling revoked abortion rights across the country.
The state’s strict abortion ban has been at the center of a challenge by Democratic U.S. Rep. Colin Allred told Republican US Senator Ted Cuz for his position.
At a campaign event over the weekend in Fort Worth, Texas, hundreds of Allred’s supporters broke into thunderous applause as she vowed to protect women’s rights to abortion. “When I’m in the Senate, we’re going to restore Roe v. Wade,” Allred said.
At a separate event the same day, in a nearby suburb, Cruz delivered a litany of criticisms of Allred, but did not bring up the abortion law.
The justices rejected the Biden administration’s request to throw out the lower court’s order. The government insists that in federal law hospitals must perform abortions if necessary in cases where the health or life of the pregnant patient is at serious risk, even in countries where it is prohibited.
Complaints of pregnant women suffering medical conditions being turned away from emergency rooms in Texas and elsewhere are rising as hospitals grapple over whether standard care could violate the state’s strict anti-abortion laws.
The government pointed to the Supreme Court’s action in a similar case from Idaho earlier this year, where judges allowed emergency abortions to continue while lawsuits continued.
Texas, on the other hand, asked the judge to leave the order in place. Texas said the case is different from Idaho because Texas has an exception for cases that pose a serious risk to the health of a pregnant patient. When the Idaho case began, the state had an exception for women’s lives but not their health.
Texas pointed to a state supreme court ruling that says doctors don’t have to wait until a woman is in immediate danger to legally provide an abortion.
However, doctors say the Texas law is too dangerous, and the medical board refuses to list all the conditions that qualify for an exemption.
Termination of pregnancy has long been part of medical care for patients with serious complications, as a way to prevent sepsis, organ failure and other major problems. But in Texas and other states with strict abortion bans, doctors and hospitals say it’s unclear whether such terminations can violate abortion bans that can lead to prison terms.
Mary Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California at Davis who has written extensively on abortion, said there is still uncertainty for doctors in Texas.
“I will continue to see doctors turn away patients, even patients who would have been able to qualify for state exemptions because of the consequences of miscalculations and unclear laws,” Ziegler said.
The Texas case began after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, leading to abortion bans in many Republican-controlled states. The Biden administration issued guidance saying that hospitals must still provide abortions in emergency situations under the health care law that requires most hospitals to treat patients who are suffering from the disease.
Texas challenged the guidelines, arguing that hospitals could not be required to provide abortions that would violate the ban. Texas The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the state, ruling in January that the government had exceeded its authority.
____
Stengle contributed to this report from Dallas and AP reporter Sean Murphy contributed to this report from Oklahoma City.
