Roe v Wade: US Supreme Court ends constitutional right to abortion
Millions of women in the US will lose the constitutional right to abortion, after the Supreme Court overturned its 50-year-old Roe v Wade decision.#democracy #freedomhttps://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-61928898
The judgement paves the way for individual states to ban the procedure.
Half are expected to introduce new restrictions or bans. Thirteen have already passed so-called trigger laws to automatically outlaw abortion.
President Joe Biden described it as "a tragic error" and urged states to enact laws to allow the procedure.
After the Supreme Court ruling, abortion access is expected to be cut off for about 36 million women of reproductive age, according to research from Planned Parenthood, a healthcare organisation that provides abortions.
One anti-abortion activist told the BBC she was "elated" as her side cheered the decision. "It's not enough just to make this the law of the land. To be pro-life is to make unthinkable," she said.
Across the divide, pro-choice supporters decried the decision as "illegitimate" and even a form of "fascism".
The BBC's Samantha Granville, reporting from an abortion clinic in Little Rock, Arkansas, said that as the ruling was posted, doors to the patient area were shut and the sound of distant sobbing could be heard before she was asked to leave. The state is one of those subject to a trigger law.
The three justices who disagreed with the majority - Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan - wrote that they had done so "with sorrow - for this court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection".
Friday's ruling amounts to a wholesale reversal of the Supreme Court's own legal precedent - an extremely rare move - and is likely to set up political battles that divide the nation.
In states where opinions on abortion are closely split - such as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin - the legality of the procedure could be determined on an election-by-election basis. In others, the ruling may set off a new round of legal battles, including over whether individuals can go out of state for abortions or order abortion drugs through mail services.
页:
[1]