Supreme Court Upholds Texas Emergency Abortion Ban

In a surprising move, the Supreme Court has decided to keep in place a Texas law that prevents hospitals from performing emergency abortions. The justices didn't explain their reasoning, but they didn't disagree with a lower court order either. This is big news because Texas has some of the toughest abortion laws in the country. The Biden administration had asked the Supreme Court to overturn this law, saying that hospitals must provide emergency abortions under federal law. They even pointed out that the Supreme Court had allowed emergency abortions to continue in a similar case from Idaho earlier this year. But Texas argued back, saying that their state law has an exception for when a pregnant woman's health is at risk. Doctors, however, are still confused about what exactly counts as a health risk under this new law. This whole situation started after the Supreme Court changed its mind on Roe v. Wade in 2022. Since then, many Republican-controlled states have been making new rules to limit abortions. Texas was one of these states. The Biden administration tried to step in and say that hospitals still need to provide emergency abortions when needed. But Texas didn't like this and sued the government. A court in Texas agreed with the state, saying that the federal government can't force hospitals to do something that breaks their state law. You might be wondering why this is such a big deal. Well, doctors have been saying for a long time that sometimes an abortion is needed to save a pregnant woman's life. Without clear rules, they're afraid of breaking the law and being punished. This has led to some scary situations where women in medical distress have been turned away from hospitals.