A surgeon has had to cancel his trip to perform life-saving surgeries on unborn fetuses in Iran, fearing that he will not be able to return to the US if he travels to his home country.

Iranian-born professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Dr Alireza Shamshirsaz, fears that he will not be allowed to return to the US to be with his wife and if he makes the trip to Iran, in spite of having a permanent resident's visa.

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Speaking to the Houston Chronicle about the dilemma, the surgeon said that he has already had to speak to two sets of parents about not being able to operate on their unborn children.

He said: "It was a disaster. They were sobbing, completely and totally devastated. Now, there is no hope for them."

Although a federal court has blocked the travel ban, which sees those from Iran and six other Muslim-majority countries prohibited from entering the country, it is expected that the Republican administration will appeal the ruling.

This places Dr Shamshirsaz in a position in which he could be forced to choose between saving lives and being cut off from his wife and patients in the US if he decides to leave the country.

As one of the few surgeons in the world specialises in operating on foetuses while they are in their mother's wombs, the doctor said: "There's just too much uncertainty right now to know what is the right thing to do."

President Trump expressed his dissatisfaction at the executive order being blocked at the federal court of appeal. In the unanimous ruling by the three judges, they wrote: "The government has pointed to no evidence that any alien from any of the countries named in the order has perpetrated a terrorist attack in the United States."

In a reaction to the ruling, the President tweeted the response: "SEE YOU IN COURT, THE SECURITY OF OUR NATION IS AT STAKE!"

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