US Supreme Court halts ruling barring emergency abortions that violate Texas ban

Houston, Oct 8: The US Supreme Court has declined an appeal by the Joe Biden administration, halting a ruling that bars emergency abortions violating the related state law in Texas, which has one of the strictest abortion bans in the country. There were no publicly noted dissents. The justices on Monday let stand a lower court order ruling that hospitals cannot be required to provide pregnancy terminations that would violate Texas law, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Biden administration had appealed over the ban, arguing that hospitals have to perform abortions in emergency situations under federal law. The Justice Department also cited a Texas 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, saying it brings Texas in line with federal law and means the lower court ruling is not necessary, according to a report from The Texas Tribune.

The decision came weeks before the Election Day as abortion has been a key issue since the Supreme Court overturned the nationwide right to abortion in 2022. In Texas, Republican Senator Ted Cruz, a loud anti-abortion crusader running for a third term in the Senate, is facing a growing rebellion within his party as his Democratic rival Colin Allred made restoring access to abortion the centre piece of his campaign.