LINDSAY WHITEHURST and JAMIE STENGLE
Mon, October 7, 2024
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday let stand a decision barring emergency abortions that violate the law in Texas, which has one of the country's strictest abortion bans.
The justices did not detail their reasoning for keeping in place a lower court order that said hospitals cannot be required to provide pregnancy terminations if they would break Texas law. There were no publicly noted dissents.
The decision comes weeks before a presidential election where abortion has been a key issue after the high court's 2022 decision overturning the nationwide right to abortion.
The state’s strict abortion ban has been a centerpiece of Democratic U.S. Rep. Colin Allred ’s challenge against Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cuz for his seat.
At a campaign event over the weekend in Fort Worth, Texas, hundreds of Allred’s supporters broke out in raucous applause when he vowed to protect a woman’s right to an 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 outlined a litany of criticisms against Allred, but didn’t bring up the abortion law.
The justices rebuffed a Biden administration push to throw out the lower court order. The administration argues that under federal law hospitals must perform abortions if needed in cases where a pregnant patient's health or life is at serious risk, even in states where it's banned.
Complaints of pregnant women in medical distress being turned away from emergency rooms in Texas and elsewhere have spiked as hospitals grapple with whether standard care could violate strict state laws against abortion.
The administration pointed to the Supreme Court’s action in a similar case from Idaho earlier this year in which the justices narrowly allowed emergency abortions to resume while a lawsuit continues.
Texas, on the other hand, asked the justices to leave the order in place. Texas said its case is different from Idaho because Texas does have an exception for cases with serious risks to the health of a pregnant patient. At the time the Idaho case began, the state had an exception for the life of a woman but not her health.
Texas pointed to a state supreme court ruling that said doctors do not have to wait until a woman’s life is in immediate danger to provide an abortion legally.
Doctors, though, have said the Texas law is dangerously vague, and a medical board has refused to list all the conditions that qualify for an exception.
Pregnancy terminations have long been part of medical treatment for patients with serious complications, as way to to prevent sepsis, organ failure and other major problems. But in Texas and other states with strict abortion bans, doctors and hospitals have said it is not clear whether those terminations could run afoul of abortion bans that carry the possibility of prison time.
Mary Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California at Davis who has written extensively about abortion, said that there remains much uncertainty for doctors in Texas.
“I think we’re going to continue to see physicians turning away patients, even patients who could qualify under the state’s exceptions because the consequences of guessing wrong are so severe and the laws are not that clear,” Ziegler said.
The Texas case started after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, leading to abortion restrictions in many Republican-controlled states. The Biden administration issued guidance saying hospitals still needed to provide abortions in emergency situations under a health care law that requires most hospitals to treat any patients in medical distress.
Texas sued over that guidance, arguing that hospitals cannot be required to provide abortions that would violate its ban. Texas The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the state, ruling in January that the administration had overstepped its authority.
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Stengle contributed to this report from Dallas and AP reporter Sean Murphy contributed to this report from Oklahoma City.
Georgia Supreme Court reinstates six-week abortion ban
Washington (AFP) – The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday reinstated a law in the southern US state prohibiting abortions for women who are more than six weeks pregnant, one week after it was struck down by a lower court.
Issued on: 07/10/2024
Washington (AFP) – The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday reinstated a law in the southern US state prohibiting abortions for women who are more than six weeks pregnant, one week after it was struck down by a lower court.
Issued on: 07/10/2024
Abortion rights have become a key issue in the upcoming US presidential election between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris
© ALEX WONG / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled last week that Georgia's so-called "heartbeat" abortion law is unconstitutional.
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, a Republican, appealed the ruling and the state supreme court on Monday put it on hold while the appeal is being heard.
The US Supreme Court, meanwhile, let stand a conservative lower court's ruling that hospitals in Texas -- where abortion laws are among the strictest in the nation -- are not required under federal law to perform emergency abortions.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre denounced the Georgia and Texas decisions.
The Supreme Court decision "means that women in Texas could still be denied critical emergency medical care because of the state's dangerous and extreme abortion bans," Jean-Pierre told reporters.
"The stories we hear of women being denied care they need in emergency situations is completely unacceptable," she said.
Georgia's law bans abortions after an embryo's cardiac activity can be detected, which is usually around six weeks, before many women even know they are pregnant.
It was passed by the Republican-dominated state legislature in 2019 and went into effect in 2022 after the US Supreme Court struck down the nationwide right to the procedure.
The Supreme Court's abortion ruling unleashed a wave of restrictions in nearly two dozen of the 50 US states, and abortion rights have become a key issue in the November presidential election between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris.
McBurney's ruling would have once again allowed abortions in Georgia up until fetal viability, which is around 22 weeks of pregnancy.
"Liberty in Georgia includes... the power of a woman to control her own body, to decide what happens to it and in it, and to reject state interference with her healthcare choices," the judge said.
"That power is not, however, unlimited," he added. "When a fetus growing inside a woman reaches viability, when society can assume care and responsibility for that separate life, then -- and only then -- may society intervene."
Monica Simpson, executive director of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, which brought the case challenging the six-week abortion ban, denounced the Georgia Supreme Court's decision as "unconscionable."
"Every minute this harmful six-week abortion ban is in place, Georgians suffer," Simpson said. "Denying our community members the lifesaving care they deserve jeopardizes their lives, safety, and health."
© 2024 AFP
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled last week that Georgia's so-called "heartbeat" abortion law is unconstitutional.
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, a Republican, appealed the ruling and the state supreme court on Monday put it on hold while the appeal is being heard.
The US Supreme Court, meanwhile, let stand a conservative lower court's ruling that hospitals in Texas -- where abortion laws are among the strictest in the nation -- are not required under federal law to perform emergency abortions.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre denounced the Georgia and Texas decisions.
The Supreme Court decision "means that women in Texas could still be denied critical emergency medical care because of the state's dangerous and extreme abortion bans," Jean-Pierre told reporters.
"The stories we hear of women being denied care they need in emergency situations is completely unacceptable," she said.
Georgia's law bans abortions after an embryo's cardiac activity can be detected, which is usually around six weeks, before many women even know they are pregnant.
It was passed by the Republican-dominated state legislature in 2019 and went into effect in 2022 after the US Supreme Court struck down the nationwide right to the procedure.
The Supreme Court's abortion ruling unleashed a wave of restrictions in nearly two dozen of the 50 US states, and abortion rights have become a key issue in the November presidential election between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris.
McBurney's ruling would have once again allowed abortions in Georgia up until fetal viability, which is around 22 weeks of pregnancy.
"Liberty in Georgia includes... the power of a woman to control her own body, to decide what happens to it and in it, and to reject state interference with her healthcare choices," the judge said.
"That power is not, however, unlimited," he added. "When a fetus growing inside a woman reaches viability, when society can assume care and responsibility for that separate life, then -- and only then -- may society intervene."
Monica Simpson, executive director of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, which brought the case challenging the six-week abortion ban, denounced the Georgia Supreme Court's decision as "unconscionable."
"Every minute this harmful six-week abortion ban is in place, Georgians suffer," Simpson said. "Denying our community members the lifesaving care they deserve jeopardizes their lives, safety, and health."
© 2024 AFP
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