The Biden Administration cannot enforce federal guidelines protecting hospitals that provide abortions to patients with life-threatening conditions in areas where abortions are banned, a three-judge panel of GOP nominees–2 from Trump, the other from GW Bush–from the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals decided, CNN reports.
“The question before the court is whether [the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act], according to HHS’s Guidance, mandates physicians to provide abortions when that is the necessary stabilizing treatment for an emergency medical condition. It does not. We therefore decline to expand the scope of EMTALA,” Trump appointee Kurt Engelhardt wrote in the unanimous ruling. “EMTALA does not mandate any specific type of medical treatment, let alone abortion.”
The federal guidance was based on a 1986 law requiring hospitals to provide care in life-saving or life-threatening situations regardless of the patient’s ability to pay. If the abortion would save the patient’s life, the Administration argued, the hospital should provide the service regardless of the state law. The Republican trio disagreed.