XPost: alt.abortion, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.society.liberalism   
   XPost: alt.politics.democrats.d, talk.politics.guns   
   From: bobuser@mindspring.com   
      
   The Texas attorney general filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging new   
   abortion guidance the Biden administration released this week — arguing   
   that it violates the rights of doctors not to participate in terminating a   
   pregnancy and steps on the state’s right to regulate the procedure within   
   its borders.   
      
   The suit against the Biden administration’s top health officials only   
   targets one of the two main actions the federal government has taken in   
   response to the fall of Roe v. Wade — a memo to hospitals and doctors   
   across the country on Monday arguing that federal law requires them to   
   provide abortions in emergency circumstances regardless of whatever bans   
   their state imposes.   
      
   In that memo, the government warned health workers and hospitals that   
   refusing to treat patients who need an abortion could put them in legal   
   jeopardy or cost them their participation in Medicare, Medicaid and other   
   federal programs.   
      
   In its lawsuit, Texas claims the new guidance “forces hospitals and   
   doctors to commit crimes and risk their licensure under Texas law.”   
      
   While Texas is the first to sue over the new guidance, the state likely   
   won’t be the last. Conservative advocates tell POLITICO they are mulling   
   their own challenges.   
      
   “We’re talking to the pro-life movement about what the response should be   
   to this perversion of the law,” said Roger Severino, who led the   
   Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights under the   
   Trump administration and now works with the Ethics and Public Policy   
   Center. “These are radical new policies and they’re opening themselves up   
   to a lawsuit and being blocked in court.”   
      
   The Biden administration argues the policies are not new at all.   
      
   “This is meant to remind folks of their federal obligations when they take   
   federal funding,” a senior Health and Human Services official told   
   reporters on a Monday call about the guidance. “It in no way mandates a   
   particular conduct.”   
      
   Texas tried to rebut this assertion in its lawsuit.   
      
   “The [the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act] guidance purports to   
   simply remind hospitals of their existing obligations under federal law,”   
   Texas’ complaint states. “But it does not: it includes a number of new   
   requirements related to the provision of abortions that do not exist under   
   federal law.”   
      
   The White House responded to the Texas lawsuit Thursday afternoon, calling   
   it “yet another example of an extreme and radical Republican elected   
   official.”   
      
   “It is unthinkable that this public official would sue to block women from   
   receiving life-saving care in emergency rooms, a right protected under   
   U.S. law,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.   
      
   Much to the frustration of Democratic lawmakers and advocates who have   
   demanded a more aggressive response to the erosion of abortion rights   
   nationwide, the Biden administration has taken a cautious approach —   
   fearful that the same Supreme Court that struck down Roe will block any   
   new measures they try to impose.   
      
   https://www.politico.com/news/2022/07/14/texas-biden-abortion-trump-   
   00045846   
      
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