Catholic Doctors File Lawsuit Against Biden Mandate Forcing Them to Do Abortions

As Democratic President Joe Biden is just days away from departing the White House, a coalition of Catholic doctors is suing his administration over a federal rule that would force health care professionals to commit abortions.

The Catholic Medical Association (CMA) and attorneys with Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed a lawsuit last week, challenging rule changes made by the Biden administration to the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). According to Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), EMTALA overrides state pro-life laws enacted in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022. HHS stipulated that EMTALA now requires emergency room doctors to carry out abortions.

The lawsuit argues that the rule changes enacted by Biden’s HHS exceed the department’s “statutory authority, were promulgated without procedure required by law, and are arbitrary and capricious, all in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).” The lawsuit also states that the rule changes “also violate … the rights of doctors under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and the First Amendment.”

Please subscribe to the LifeNews YouTube channel for the latest pro-life videos.

In comments to The Washington Stand, Mary Szoch, director of the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council, said, “Joe Biden has claimed many times that he stands up for the little guy. Well, he certainly doesn’t stand for the littlest guy — the unborn child. The mother’s womb should be the safest place for an unborn baby but instead it is a place where a baby has the fewest rights and least protection.” She added, “The Biden administration’s efforts to force doctors to kill unborn children is an abomination. Let’s pray for all to recognize the right of these doctors to be agents of healing — not forced killers.”

In a statement regarding the case, ADF Senior Counsel Matt Bowman remarked, “Elective abortion is not life-saving care — it ends the life of the unborn child — and EMTALA does not grant the government authority to force doctors to perform these dangerous procedures; rather, it requires doctors to treat a pregnant woman and her ‘unborn child.’” He continued, “Federal bureaucrats have no business compelling doctors or hospitals to end unborn lives, especially when the law they are citing grants them no such authority.”

Idaho is also in a legal battle with the Biden administration over the EMTALA rule changes. In 2022, shortly after Roe v. Wade was overturned, the Biden administration sued the Gem State in an effort to override Idaho’s Defense of Life Act, which protects unborn life in almost all cases. The Biden administration even offered to pay private hospitals to commit abortions. In June 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case, instead returning it to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Supreme Court’s decision not to hear the case nonetheless vacated stays imposed by the Circuit Court on the Defense of Life Act, allowing the pro-life law to go into effect. Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador (R) said at the time, “I remain committed to protect unborn life and ensure women in Idaho receive necessary medical care, and I will continue my outreach to doctors and hospitals across Idaho to ensure that they understand what our law requires.” He added, “We look forward to ending this administration’s relentless overreach into Idahoans’ right to protect and defend life.”

In a separate instance, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Biden administration cannot use EMTALA rule changes to force emergency room doctors in Texas to carry out abortions in violation of the state’s pro-life laws. As of yet, the Supreme Court has not issued a definitive ruling on the Biden administration’s EMTALA rule changes.

LifeNews Note: S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.

The post Catholic Doctors File Lawsuit Against Biden Mandate Forcing Them to Do Abortions appeared first on LifeNews.com.