This story contains references to rape.
It has been several weeks since the Supreme Court of the United States overturned the landmark 1973 Roe V Wade ruling, which recognised a nationwide right to abortion.
The court's 6-3 ruling on 24 June has sent legal shock waves across the US, with about half the states expected to move to restrict or ban abortions. Thirteen states, including Texas, had so-called "trigger" laws on the books designed to snap into effect if Roe v Wade was overturned.
The debate over abortion rights in the US has since intensified, at times laying bare the immediate consequences of the ruling, as some experts warn .
Here are five things you need to know this week.
Texas sues Biden administration
On Thursday, Texas sued the federal government over new guidance from the Biden administration directing hospitals to provide emergency abortions regardless of state bans on the procedure that came into effect after the ruling.
Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the lawsuit argued the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) was trying to "use federal law to transform every emergency room in the country into a walk-in abortion clinic".
The lawsuit focused on guidance issued on Monday advising that a federal law protecting patients' access to emergency treatment requires performing abortions when doctors believe a pregnant woman's life or health is threatened.
The guidance came after President Joe Biden, a Democrat, signed an executive order on Friday seeking to ease access to services to terminate pregnancies after the ruling.
US President Joe Biden. Source: AP
HHS said the guidance from its US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services agency did not constitute new policy, but reminded doctors of their obligations under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act.
But in the lawsuit filed in Lubbock, the Republican-led state of Texas, argued that federal law has never authorised the federal government to compel doctors and hospitals to perform abortions and that the guidance was unlawful.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in a statement called it "unthinkable that this public official would sue to block women from receiving life-saving care in emergency rooms, a right protected under US law".
‘Transphobic’ questions
A legal professor has accused a Republican senator from the state of Missouri of using a "transphobic" line of questioning during a hearing on the impact of the Supreme Court ruling.
Professor Khiara Bridges, from the University of California Berkeley School of Law, testified before the US Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.
During the hearing, Senator Josh Hawley asked Professor Bridges who she was referring to when she spoke about "people with a capacity for pregnancy".
"Would that be women?" the senator asked.
“Many women, cis women, have the capacity for pregnancy," Professor Bridges replied.
"Many cis women do not have the capacity for pregnancy. There are also trans men who are capable of pregnancy, as well as non-binary people who are capable of pregnancy.”
"So this isn't really a women's rights issue?" Senator Hawley responded.
"We can recognise that this impacts women while also recognising that it impacts other groups. Those things are not mutually exclusive, Senator Hawley," Professor Bridges said.
When asked again to explain the "core of her argument," Professor Bridges told the senator that his line of questioning is "transphobic" and that it "opens up trans people to violence by not recognising them".
"Are you saying that I’m opening up people to violence by asking whether or not women are the folks who can have pregnancies?” Senator Hawley said.
“I want to note that one out of five transgender persons have attempted suicide. Denying that trans people exist and pretending not to know that they exist is dangerous," the professor replied.
Man charged with raping 10-year-old girl who crossed state lines for abortion
An Ohio man has been charged with raping a 10-year-old girl who later travelled to the neighbouring state of Indiana for an abortion, a case that Mr Biden has highlighted in criticising the Supreme Court decision.
Gerson Fuentes, 27, who was arrested on Tuesday, appeared in Franklin County, Ohio, municipal court for an arraignment on Wednesday. A police investigator testified at the hearing that the man confessed to raping the girl at least twice.
The victim in the case underwent an abortion in Indiana on 30 June, the officer testified.
A statewide ban on abortions in Ohio after the sixth week of pregnancy – before many women are aware they are pregnant – went into effect just hours after the Supreme Court's ruling.
The incident gained attention this month when the Indianapolis Star newspaper reported she had to travel to Indiana to secure an abortion because she was three days past Ohio's six-week limit, which does not include exceptions for rape or incest.
Indiana's attorney general said on Thursday he was investigating whether the physician who performed the abortion abided by state laws requiring doctors to report the termination of a pregnancy and suspected cases of child abuse.
But the same newspaper reported it had obtained documents through a public records request showing the physician had met the disclosure requirements in a form she filed with the Indiana Department of Health and the Indiana Department of Child Services.
Abortions after six weeks remain legal in Indiana, though the Republican-controlled state legislature is expected to consider new restrictions later this month.
US President Joe Biden spoke of the young girl in remarks to reporters about abortion access on Friday.
"Just imagine being that little girl – 10 years old," he said angrily at the White House.
Mr Fuentes is being held on a US$2 million ($3 million) bond and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on 22 July.
Abortion bans prevent women from getting essential medication
Annie England Noblin, a 40-year-old resident of the rural state of Missouri, had never had a problem filling her monthly prescription for methotrexate until this week.
On Monday, Ms Noblin's pharmacist said she could not give her the drug until she had confirmed with the woman's doctor that the medication would not be used to induce an abortion. Methotrexate can be used to end a pregnancy.
Missouri now bans nearly all abortions and methotrexate is also one of the first medicines prescribed by doctors to treat rheumatoid arthritis, which affects more than one million Americans, and almost one in every 50 Australians.
The pharmacy ultimately filled the prescription, but Ms Noblin said she will likely switch to a different, more expensive medication in case they refuse to fill her prescription in the future.
More than 30 states have enacted legislation that restricts access to medication that can be used to terminate a pregnancy.
Texas woman argues unborn child counts as passenger after fine
A pregnant woman in Texas who was fined for driving solo in a carpool lane said her fetus must be counted as a passenger in the wake of strict new abortion laws.
Brandy Bottone, 32 years old and 34 weeks pregnant, vowed to go to court after she was pulled over in Dallas and handed a penalty by a police officer last month.
She was driving in a lane reserved for vehicles carrying at least two people - a fact she did not dispute.
But Ms Bottone told a police officer that her unborn child was a person in the eyes of the law, as the Supreme Court had days earlier overturned Roe V Wade.
"He said, 'Is there somebody else in the car?'" Ms Bottone told CNN on Sunday. "I pointed at my stomach and I was like, 'right here.'"
When the policeman said that being pregnant "doesn't count" as the two people must be "outside the body," Ms Bottone insisted that "this is a baby".
The Texas criminal code, like that of many conservative states, recognises a fetus as a "person," but this does not appear to apply for laws regulating transportation.
Even before Roe v Wade was overturned last month, a new Texas law had banned almost all abortions after six weeks - before many women even know they are pregnant.
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