‘They Must Provide The Abortion!’ AG Garland Hits Back at Texas Lawsuit Challenging Biden Emergency Abortion Rule
Attorney General Merrick Garland hit back at a Texas lawsuit over a Biden administration abortion rule, declaring that doctors faced with an emergency “must perform the abortion” regardless of state law.
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization — which effectively overturned Roe v. Wade — President Joe Biden signed executive orders to protect abortion rights that resulted in the Department of Health and Human Services issuing guidance on abortions and emergency care. The state of Texas filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration over the guidance.
On Wednesday, Garland spoke with reporters as he met with ATF Director Steven Dettelbach and other Justice Department officials, and answered several questions on a variety of topics — including Dobbs and the Texas suit.
Garland told reporters he’s moving to dismiss the suit, and gave an emphatic explanation that cited the Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act as the basis for the guidance:
REPORTER: The state of Texas recently sued the Biden administration over new rules that said doctors must be able to perform abortions in emergency situations. What is your response to that? And just sort of what is the Justice Department’s next step on Dobbs more broadly?
AG GARLAND: On the state of Texas and on the abortion question, the Justice Department is going to use every tool we have to ensure reproductive freedom. We are going to be looking at everything from advising, and are doing everything, from advising our fellow federal agencies on their authorities, to bringing affirmative litigation, to entering into private lawsuits on the side of private parties with respect to amicus and statements of interest. As you all know, we set up a task force to continue this work that our associate attorney generals are running. And we are… reviewing all the all the options here.
But with respect to what you just said, I can tell you one thing’s for certain. We are going to file a motion to dismiss the Texas lawsuit. Texas is challenging an HHS guidance under the Emergency Medical Treatment Act, which is called [EMTALA].
This could not be more straightforward. That act requires hospitals to provide stabilizing care for a patient who comes in with a medical emergency that seriously jeopardizes their life or their health. And where that stabilizing treatment is abortion, they must provide the abortion! And they must do so, notwithstanding a state law that is so narrow that it doesn’t even protect a woman’s life or health. It is expressly preempted by the [EMTALA] statute and is expressly preempted by our system of federalism, expressed by the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
We are going to enforce federal law here.
Watch above via C-SPAN.
