The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) declined to hear oral arguments in a case brought by the Biden-Harris Administration accusing the state of Texas of violating federal law with its abortion policy.

According to Fox News, the decision by the high court’s justices to not hear the case automatically upholds a lower court ruling siding with Texas over its state law declaring that hospitals can deny certain abortions if they would be in violation of the law.

The Biden-Harris Administration demanded that SCOTUS overturn the lower court’s ruling, arguing that the state law was in violation of a federal law forcing hospitals to provide abortions in case of an emergency. Federal prosecutors cited a similar case last year where the Supreme Court ultimately allowed emergency room abortions to take place in Idaho, despite the state implementing its own law. Lawyers for the state of Texas argued that their law was different from the Idaho law due to an exception for pregnant patients.

In June, a group of women filed a lawsuit against Texas over its Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), becoming the first women in the country to bring about a legal case as a result of being denied abortion following the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in 2022. That ruling overturned the precedent of Roe v. Wade, eliminating abortion as a federal “right” and instead leaving it up to the individual states to be decided.

At the heart of the Texas law is whether or not the state government can forbid a doctor from performing an abortion if they believe that an abortion would stabilize the woman’s health in an emergency. The Texas Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of the law, determining that its exceptions were broad enough and still allowed for abortions in the event of the mother’s life being in danger.

The ruling comes as Democrats, led by the presidential campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Tim Walz (D-Minn.), try to weaponize the abortion issue as their main line of attack against former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance (R-Ohio). Abortion appears to be the one issue where Democrats maintain an edge over Republicans, although the gap has been closing in recent weeks as more voters begin to trust Republicans on this issue as well, alongside other issues such as the economy, immigration, and foreign policy.