Austin:

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that Texas can ban emergency abortions even though the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says a federal statute takes priority over state laws prohibiting the procedure. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court's ruling that sided with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. The appeal was heard by Judge Leslie Southwick, an appointee of President George W. Bush, and Trump appointees Kurt Engelhardt and Cory Wilson.

Spokespeople for the Justice Department have declined to respond to requests for comment Tuesday evening. The office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and two anti-abortion medical associations that challenged the guidance - the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians & Gynecologists and the Christian Medical & Dental Associations - also did not respond to the Court's ruling.

The Texas Supreme Court last month denied a request for an emergency court order allowing Kate Cox, a pregnant woman whose fetus had a fatal diagnosis, to have an abortion in the state. Cox ended up leaving the state to get the procedure, and the ruling against her left many doctors across the state unclear on which cases would legally qualify for an abortion.

The ruling on Tuesday is the latest development in a lengthy legal battle between the Biden administration and the state of Texas after the Supreme Court's decision in 2022 to overturn Roe v. Wade, and it comes amid a slew of other lawsuits over whether exceptions can be made for abortions in states, like Texas, where it is banned.

After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued guidance in July 2022 that instructed hospitals that federal law requires doctors to perform abortions, even in states where it is banned, if they believe it is "the stabilizing treatment necessary" to protect the health of the mother in an emergency medical situation.

Paxton, a Republican, had sued to block the guidance from the Department of Health and Human Services in 2022 that said medical providers should in emergencies, by a 1986 federal law that demands doctors to provide the emergency services needed to stabilize any person who comes into an emergency room regardless of the patient's ability to pay.

But the Texas District Judge James Wesley Hendrix barred the Federal Agency from enforcing the guidance in the state. The Biden administration appealed this ruling in the appeals Court. But the appeals court agreed with the district court's finding that the federal statute, known as the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act of 1986, or EMTALA, "does not provide an unqualified right for the pregnant mother to abort her child especially when EMTALA imposes equal stabilization obligations," one among the Judges Engelhardt wrote in Tuesday's opinion. "We, therefore, decline to expand the scope of EMTALA," he added.