Moyle v United States, another skirmish in America's abortion battle, comes to the Supreme Court on Wednesday. A month after hearing a case involving access to abortion pills, the justices will decide whether Idaho's Defence of Life Act - which bans terminations except in cases of reported rape or incest, or when "necessary to prevent the death of the pregnant woman" - squares with federal law.

According to the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labour Act, passed in 1986, hospitals receiving public funding must provide "stabilising treatment" to anyone showing up at theri doors. In 2022, the Biden administration clarified that this includes abortionwhen a woman's pregnancy threatens her health. Idaho, meanwhile, argues that all states have the right to "regulate the practice of medicine, including on the issue of abortion", as they choose. But the federal government contends that by criminalising abortion unless a woman is on the brink of death, Idaho's law will put some pregnant women at risk of complications like "organ failure or loss of fertility".