Texas judge blocks Biden order requiring hospitals to provide emergency abortions

Trump-appointed judge says US health department overreached in its guidance, in decision issued just before trigger law' takes effect

A federal judge in Texas has blocked a Biden administration guidance that required hospitals to provide emergency abortions, even in states like Texas, which prohibits the practice following the supreme court's overturning of Roe v Wade.

The legal effort by the Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, a stalwart Republican, represents the latest attempt to stop the federal government from influencing the reproductive access landscape in the aftermath of the supreme court's Dobbs decision, which overturned longstanding constitutional protections on abortion.