On Wednesday, a divided Supreme Court listened to arguments over a state’s abortion ban — its first such hearing since the justices overturned Roe v. Wade. The case, in which the Joe Biden administration is challenging Idaho’s abortion ban, literally puts the health and even the lives of pregnant women on the line.

Last week, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in what could end up being its most consequential abortion decision since Dobbs. In a case pitting Idaho’s extreme abortion ban against a federal law known as EMTALA—that since 1986 has required hospitals to provide emergency care—conservative justices seemed to embrace the idea that states can deny crisis medical treatment to pregnant patients,