Pandas version checks
Location of the documentation
https://pandas.pydata.org/docs/dev/reference/api/pandas.DataFrame.sort_values.html
Documentation problem
In the current dev documentation, it is not clear whether value_counts, sort_values, sort_index etc. give the same result in case of ties. It turns out the underlying sorting function is numpy.sort, and the answer is positive for quick sort, when one checkes the source.
Suggested fix for documentation
Since quicksort is the default sorting algorithm, we can clarify that the sorting is deterministic. Other algorithms might be clarified if numpy/numpy#30262 is resolved.