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Judge blocks enforcement of Biden abortion guidance in Texas
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FILE - Demonstrators march and gather near the Texas state Capitol in Austin following the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022. A federal judge in Texas issued a ruling on Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2022, temporarily blocking the federal government from enforcing guidance against the state that requires hospitals to provide abortion services if the life of the mother is at risk. - photo by AP Photo/Eric Gay, File
LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — A federal judge in Texas temporarily blocked the federal government from enforcing a legal interpretation that would require hospitals in the state to provide abortion services if the life of the mother is at risk. Texas sued Department of Health and Human Services and Secretary Xavier Becerra last month, arguing that the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, which is a federal law, doesn't require doctors to provide abortions if doing so would violate a state law. In a ruling Tuesday, U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix temporarily blocked the government from enforcing the guidance, finding that the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act “is silent as to abortion.” "Since the statute is silent on the question, the Guidance cannot answer how doctors should weigh risks to both a mother and her unborn child," the judge's order said.