U.S. Supreme Court hears challenges to Texas near-total abortion ban

The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on Monday in challenges by President Joe Biden's administration and abortion providers to a Texas law that imposes a near-total ban on the procedure and lets private citizens enforce it - a novel design that has shielded it from being blocked by lower courts.

Abortion rights in the United States are hanging in the balance as the nine justices take up the dispute over the Texas law barring abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy before hearing arguments on Dec. 1 over the...