US Enforcement of Emergency Abortion Rule Halted in Texas (2)

The Biden administration can’t enforce a guidance document that claimed to remind health-care providers of their obligations under a federal emergency care law, but actually was intended to protect abortion access nationwide, the Fifth Circuit said Tuesday.

Judge Kurt D. Englehardt said the document added new obligations under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act and didn’t simply restate what hospitals and doctors must do to comply with the federal law.

The guidance wasn’t enforceable because the US Department of Health and Human Services adopted it without first putting it out for notice-and-comment rulemaking, as required by the Administrative Procedure ...