U.S. judge blocks federal guidance on emergency abortions in Texas

[August 24, 2022]  (Reuters) - A federal judge in Texas late Tuesday blocked the Biden administration from enforcing in the Republican-led state new guidance requiring hospitals to provide emergency abortions to women regardless of state bans on the procedure.

U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix in Lubbock agreed with Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' guidance was unauthorized and went beyond the text of a related federal law.

The judge declined to enjoin the guidance nationwide and instead only barred HHS from enforcing it and its interpretation of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act in Texas and against to anti-abortion groups of doctors.

Abortion rights protesters participate in nationwide demonstrations following the leaked Supreme Court opinion suggesting the possibility of overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision, in Houston, Texas, U.S., May 14, 2022. REUTERS/Callaghan O'Hare

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Alex Richardson)

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