Do pregnant women have a right to urgent medical care? No, according to a US court | Moira Donegan

Federal judges sided with a Texas law that allows the state to push pregnant patients to the brink of death before allowing medically necessary abortion

Do doctors have an obligation under federal law to keep their patients alive, even if their patients happen to be pregnant women? Do doctors have an obligation to prevent maiming - or irreversible organ damage, or other kinds of serious bodily harm - and if so, does that obligation extend even to women? Do women have a right to access medically necessary care even if they are pregnant? No, according to the US fifth circuit court.

That's the conclusion reached by a three-judge panel recently in Texas v Becerra, a case in which Texas sued the Biden administration over guidance that directed all hospitals receiving federal funds to perform necessary stabilizing treatment" on patients - including abortions on pregnant patients undergoing medical emergencies.

Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist