It will be harder for pregnant women in Texas to advocate for their own health care in emergency rooms across the state, thanks to a federal appeals court that decided on Tuesday (Jan. 2) that emergency abortions must not be allowed. 

This decision comes as the Biden Administration’s U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has already determined that hospitals must provide abortions in emergencies. 

“Under the law, no matter where you live, women have the right to emergency care, including abortion care,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said previously in a statement. “Today, in no uncertain terms, we are reinforcing that we expect providers to continue offering these services and that federal law preempts state abortion bans when needed for emergency care.”

Unfortunately, lawmakers in Texas don’t see it that way. NBC News reports that the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stands with the district court’s initial ruling, which is also supported by Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. 

The issue was raised most recently in the Texas Supreme Court in December after a pregnant woman was denied an abortion once she discovered fatal complications with her pregnancy and fetus. She was forced to leave the state to have the medical procedure elsewhere.

In 2022, Paxton sued the Biden Administration’s Department of Health and Human Services, which followed the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, a 1986 federal law that required medical providers to provide abortions in emergency cases when the mother’s health was in jeopardy, regardless of her ability to pay. U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix agreed with the state and barred that federal decision, saying that the guidance goes beyond the scope of the law and promotes forced abortions.

Now, the appeals court also agrees that the federal law oversteps, explaining that the law does not give pregnant mothers an “unqualified right” to abort her child and they refuse to expand the scope of the law.

The development outlines the risk Black women are left with regarding their reproductive choices in Texas alone. Black people make up 12 percent of the state's population but have had the highest rates of abortion, according to data reported by The Texas Tribune.

Linda Goler Blount, president and CEO of the Black Women’s Health Imperative told the Tribune in 2022 that because of policies like this and nationwide limits to abortion access, she expects a 30 percent increase in Black maternal mortality rates and a 20 percent increase in Black poverty.

"...Literally, the combination of poor health, lack of income, lack of access and the stress of being Black in this country causes premature mortality,” she said.

Tuesday’s ruling is just the latest turn of events in Texas, which continues to be a hotbed location between anti- and pro-abortion rights after the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. As this presidential election year begins to unfold, the issue will continue to arise as abortion rights are dissolving across the country, leaving pregnant mothers with little to no rights about the destiny of their bodies.