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Maanvi Singh and Chris Stein in Washington

Protests sweep across nation as supreme court overturns Roe v Wade – as it happened

United States Joe Biden Abortion Gun Control

A recap

– Chris Stein, Maanvi Singh

Updated

Contraception, gay marriage: Clarence Thomas signals new targets for supreme court

Many Americans reacted to the supreme court’s decision to reverse Roe v Wade and remove federal abortion rights in the US with shock, but many also asked a terrified question: what might be next?

The conservative justice Clarence Thomas appeared to offer a preview of the court’s potential future rulings, suggesting the rightwing-controlled court may return to the issues of contraception access and marriage equality, threatening LGBTQ+ rights.

“In future cases, we should reconsider all of this court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell,” Thomas wrote in his concurring opinion to the ruling on Roe.

Griswold v Connecticut established a married couple’s right to use contraception without government interference in 1965. The court ruled in the 2003 case of Lawrence v Texas that states could not criminalize sodomy, and Obergefell v Hodges established the right for same-sex couples to marry in 2015.

In the decision written by Justice Samuel Alito, the conservative majority makes it clear that the decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization should not be interpreted as a threat to other major precedent cases. But the court’s three liberal justices – Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan – dismissed that logic as a farce in their fiery dissenting opinion.

“Either the mass of the majority’s opinion is hypocrisy or additional constitutional rights are under threat,” the liberal justices wrote. “It is one or the other.”

Read more:

Updated

In states across the US, staff at abortion clinics faced confusion and chaos as they tried to decipher the implications of the supreme court ruling in each state.

In several state’s, bans on abortions in most cases were triggered immediately – in others, like Idaho, a law triggering an abortion ban will take effect in 30 days.

Here the Washington Post captures the scene at a Texas clinic where abortions came too an abrupt stop today:

The phones started ringing, as they always did, moments after Houston Women’s Reproductive Services opened for business at 9 a.m. on Friday — with patients in need of abortions calling to secure a spot on the schedule.

Then, 12 minutes later, it all came to a stop. The Supreme Court had overturned Roe v. Wade.

“Can we still do abortions today?” asked patient advocate Marjorie Eisen, thinking about the 20 women they had booked for appointments.

Several were already in the waiting room, scrolling through their phones as they waited.

Updated

More scenes from around the country.

In Miami, the mayor of Miami-Dade county Daniella Levine Cava joined a rally:

Daniella Levine Cava at a Miami protest.
Daniella Levine Cava at a Miami protest. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Elsewhere, crowds from coast to coast are marching in the streets and gathering outside government buildings.

In Boise, Idaho.

And Charlotte, North Carolina:

And New Orleans, Louisiana:

And Houston, Texas:

And Topeka, Kansas:

Pro-choice advocates gather outside a the Kansas statehouse.
Pro-choice advocates gather outside a the Kansas statehouse. Photograph: Charlie Riedel/AP

Updated

The Guardian’s Victoria Bekiempis is on the ground in New York City where the streets are filled with demonstrators.

Here’s a view through her eyes:

Updated

The decision to overturn Roe v Wade has sparked outrage and concern around the world.

In London, protesters gathered outside the US embassy holding signs and chanting. Demonstrations also took place in Edinburgh, the Independent reported, while sympathy protests were also reported in Berlin.

A protest at the embassy in London on Friday.
A protest at the embassy in London on Friday. Photograph: Guy Smallman/Getty Images

The Associated Press has rounded up some reactions from international figures and world leaders, as well as activists who fear the reverberations of the US decision in their own countries:

The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said he’s “concerned and disappointed”. Writing on Twitter, he called the ruling was “both reducing women’s rights and access to health care.” He said there was “irrefutable” evidence that restricting legal abortions can drive women and girls to unsafe and sometimes deadly procedures.

Meanwhile, the French president Emmanuel Macron tweeted that abortion is “a fundamental right for all women” that must be protected. The French Foreign Ministry urged US federal authorities “to do everything possible” to ensure American women can have continued access to abortion, calling it “a health and survival issue for young girls and women.”

The end of constitutional protections for abortions in the United States on emboldened abortion opponents around the world, while advocates for abortion rights worried it could threaten recent moves toward legalization in their countries.

The US Supreme Court’s overturning of the landmark decision “shows that these types of rights are always at risk of being steamrolled,” said Ruth Zurbriggen, an Argentinian activist and member of the Companion Network of Latin America and the Caribbean, a group favoring abortion rights.

In Kenya, Phonsina Archane watched news of Friday’s ruling and said she froze for a while in a state of panic.

“This is being done in America, which should be an example when it comes to the women’s rights movement,” said Archane, an activist for abortion rights. “If this is happening in America, what about me here in Africa? It’s a very, very sad day.”

Updated

How Americans lost their right to abortions: a victory for conservatives, 50 years in the making

The short version of how Americans lost their right to terminate a pregnancy might be summed up in one name: Trump.

The real estate tycoon and reality-TV star first shocked the world by winning the US presidency, then rewarded his base by confirming three supreme court justices to a nine-member bench, thus rebalancing the court to lean conservative for a generation to come.

That short road led to Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, an opinion released this week in which supreme court justices voted to overturn the landmark case Roe v Wade, which in 1973 granted a constitutional right to abortion.

The end of federal protection for abortion is expected to lead to 26 states banning the procedure immediately or as soon as practicable, affecting tens of millions of US women and people who can become pregnant.

The decision comes even though about 85% of Americans favor legal abortion in at least some circumstances. Why, and how, a decision opposed by a majority of Americans came about has everything to do with political power, experts said.

The anti-abortion movement is “the best organized faction in American politics”, said Frederick Clarkson, an expert on the Christian right and a senior research analyst at Political Research Associate, a progressive thinktank in Massachusetts.

“They understand they’re a minority of the population, of the electorate, and certainly a minority set of views on reproductive rights issues,” he said. “But because they know that, they’ve found effective ways of maximizing their political clout by being better organized than numerically greater factions who are less well organized.”

Put another way, he said, the anti-abortion movement “mastered the tools of democracy to achieve undemocratic outcomes”.

The currents that led to the Dobbs decision are among the most powerful in American politics today. Over decades, a religious movement prevailed by harnessing the forces of polarization, the erosion of constitutional norms and the manipulation of US democracy, scholars said.

“It’s not like we’ve had this slow erosion of abortion rights,” said Neil Siegel, an expert in constitutional law and professor at Duke University who clerked for former liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Instead, justices issued an opinion that “is utterly dismissive of what has been constitutional law for literally five decades”, and was “repeatedly affirmed by justices appointed by both parties”.

Read more:

Here’s the scene in Philly:

Abortion-rights advocates demonstrate in Philadelphia.
Abortion-rights advocates demonstrate in Philadelphia. Photograph: Matt Slocum/AP

What was abortion like before Roe v Wade?

In 1968, Ann Hill discovered she was pregnant while a law student. With abortion illegal, she was forced to have a backstreet operation. She explains how it inspired her to become a women’s rights campaigner.

As told to Emine Saner:

Somehow, I got the name and number of one of the most well-known doctors in the area who performed abortions illegally, Nathan Rappaport. A man with a deep gravelly voice told me that it would be $500 upfront, and scheduled the procedure for a Saturday morning, so I didn’t miss any law school classes. A friend lent me the money and I went with another friend, Steve, to Rappaport’s apartment in a brownstone on New York’s Upper West Side.

It looked like a home: you first walked into a living area, where Steve had to stay, then I was taken into a room that looked like a dentist’s office, which had a chair with stirrups. I was nervous – you do not go for medical procedures at an apartment – but it was just a matter of immediacy. Get it done, and then I’ll breathe again. I was frightened about the procedure, but I knew I was doing the right thing. Fortunately, I hadn’t known beforehand that he had been imprisoned for manslaughter, after a woman whom he had given abortion to had died.

When I came round from the anaesthesia – I think he had given me ether – still groggy and trying to deal with everything, he foisted legal papers on me about his case. He knew I was a law student and wanted me to help him overturn his conviction and get his medical licence back.

I took the documents and left. I felt relief, but I was also in a lot of pain. Back in my dorm room at Yale, I was bleeding. I was worried about what would happen – was I going to bleed to death? I hadn’t given much thought to the safety of it before because I knew I was going to do it. It may have been denial on my part. But that weekend, dealing with the pain and bleeding, I worried I had been permanently mutilated or would die.

On Monday, I went back to the original doctor I had seen, and told him I’d had an abortion. He told me that he could admit me to the hospital to be “cleaned out” – that it wasn’t illegal. Fortunately, the pain and bleeding stopped after a few days; I think he gave me antibiotics, concerned about infection.

The Senate’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee will be holding a hearing next month to discuss the impact of the Dobbs decision.

“I am not going to stand idly by while Republicans rip away abortion rights, drag this country back by half a century, and gear up for a national abortion ban,” said committee chair Patty Murray . “I will use my gavel as chair of the health committee to shed light on the devastating harm this supreme court decision will have on women’s health in this country.”

But once again, it’s unclear what this hearing could do, other than “shed light”. In a divided Senate, it’s unclear that there are 60 votes needed to move past a filibuster and pass any sort of abortion protections.

Updated

In New York’s Washington Square Park, Lucy Schneider, 101, and her granddaughter, Emily Savin, were among those in the park in opposing the decision. Schneider held a side that read “Centenarian for Choice”.

“I’m very much opposed to the current supreme court and everything they’re doing it’s just awful,” Schneider said.

“I want her to be free to have an abortion if necessary. I hope it won’t come to that, but I want her to be able to,” Schneider said.

Updated

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was escorted by police on Friday as she walked the short distance separating the Capitol and the supreme court buildings to join pro-choice rights groups protesting there.

The New York representative addressed the crowd amid chaos through a bullhorn calling for people to go “into the streets” and “keep abortion safe and legal”.

Updated

“We are looking at suffering and death,” said an abortion clinic escort in Jackson, Missouri. “How do you think we feel?”

New York City’s Washington Square park was packed with what appeared to be more than 1,000 abortion rights protesters early Friday evening as the US supreme court handed down a decision this morning that overturned the landmark court decision Roe v Wade.

“We’re very upset about what’s going on in the world, and I’m feeling more and more and more like we’re sliding to theocracy and it’s hard to wake up thinking that women are lesser citizens,” said Erin, 49. Erin, a non-profit sector worker who asked that her surname not be used, was visiting the city from Arizona.

In that state, advocates are preparing for officials to crack down on abortion. Erin said she wasn’t shocked by the decision.

It was “not surprising, honestly”, Erin said. “I know a lot of my friends and family were holding out hope that it wouldn’t come down the way it did.”

“It’s devastating,” Erin said. “It’s really hard.”

Updated

Here are some more scenes from protests around the country:

People gathered at Union Square in New York to protest against the supreme court’s decision.
People gathered at Union Square in New York to protest against the supreme court’s decision. Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Protestors take part in a “die in” in Norman, Oklahoma.
Protestors take part in a “die in” in Norman, Oklahoma. Photograph: Sue Ogrocki/AP
Protesters gathered outside the courthouse in Los Angeles.
Protesters gathered outside the courthouse in Los Angeles. Photograph: David McNew/Getty Images

Updated

During a press conference held this afternoon, California governor Gavin Newsom signed new legislation codifying the state’s commitment to ensure safe access to abortion care for those outside its borders.

Earlier on Friday, Newsom also joined the governors of Washington and Oregon, who together, pledged to secure abortion rights across the west coast for residents and those across the country who will be impacted by the ruling.

California’s new law quashes civil judgements from states hostile to abortion that have sought to bar their residents from traveling to places where reproductive care is legal. Signaling that this is just the first of a dozen pieces of legislation that will cross the governor’s desk in the coming weeks, Newsom emphasized that the state will do all it can to serve as a safe-haven while protecting its own residents from what he cast as profound hypocrisy from the highest court in the nation.

“This is not just about women. This is not just about choice,” Newsom said, nodding to the erosion of rights outlined for by Justice Clarence Thomas in his concurring opinion, calling for reevaluation of precedents upholding same-sex marriage and contraception. “This is a serious moment in American history,” Newsom continued. “This moment punctuates what is really going on this country and they are just winding up.”

Updated

Here’s the scene at the supreme court:

A crowd of people march outside the supreme court carrying signs. The nearest one, on lime green posterboard, reads 'Pro-life?! You're killing women'.
Abortion rights demonstrators protest outside the supreme court building as the court rules in the Dobbs v Women’s Health Organization abortion case. Photograph: Jim Bourg/Reuters
People hold signs in front of the supreme court. The sign in the foreground has hand drawn images of bloody judges robes, labeled with the name of each supreme court justice. Above the images are the words 'Blood on your robes'.
Protestors outside the supreme court. Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

Updated

Amanda Gorman, first national youth poet laureate, wrote this in reaction to today’s ruling:

Lisa Murkowski, one of two Senate Republicans who supports abortion rights, said she would “work with a broader group” to restore rights.

The Alaska senator said:

I am continuing to work with a broader group to restore women’s freedom to control their own health decisions wherever they live. Legislation to accomplish that must be a priority.

But the sentiment is unlikely to get her very far. Encoding abortion protections will require support from all the Senate Democrats and 10 Republicans.

Dozens of elected prosecutors across the US have signed a letter pledging not to prosecute abortions, including officials in states with “trigger laws” that are in the process of banning abortion.

A total of 83 district attorneys and state attorneys general agreed to the commitment, saying they were united in their belief that “prosecutors have a responsibility to refrain from using limited criminal legal system resources to criminalize personal medical decisions”, adding, “As such, we decline to use our offices’ resources to criminalize reproductive health decisions and commit to exercise our well settled discretion and refrain from prosecuting those who seek, provide, or support abortions.”
In addition to commitments from officials in blue states that have laws defending abortion rights, the signatories include local district attorneys in Missouri, Texas, Michigan and Mississippi. Even with Roe in effect, prosecutors across the US have brought criminal charges against people for pregnancy loss and other outcomes, and advocates say this kind of criminalization will significantly escalate with the Roe decision overturned.

Where are abortions now banned?

In nine states, bans on abortion took effect today, following the ruling. These states include: Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah and Wisconsin.

In other states, bans on abortions in most cases will take effect in 30 days. And in some others, legislatures and legal bodies will determine how to proceed – convening to legislate new restrictions, or provide guidance on previously unenforceable abortion restrictions.

In a letter to Democratic colleagues, House speaker Nancy Pelosi acknowledged that Thomas’ concurring opinion was “of special concern”.

She also said that when it comes to gun control and abortion access, “It is clear that the path forward will depend on the outcome of the upcoming midterm elections.”

“The contrast between our parties could not be clearer: while Democrats are the party of freedom and safety, Republicans are the party of punishment and control,” she said. “We must ‘Remember in November’ that the rights of women, and indeed all Americans, are on the ballot.”

Updated

Today so far

The repercussions from the supreme court’s ruling overturning the constitutional right to abortion continue to be felt across the country. Here is what has happened today so far:

The US politics blog is now in the hands of Maanvi Singh on the west coast, who will take you through the final hours of a day with massive consequences for the country.

Updated

Dubbing it the “West Coast Offense”, the Democratic governors of California, Oregon and Washington have announced a push to preserve abortion access for their residents and people who come from neighboring states to seek the procedure.

The three governors have been vocal about the issue ever since the leak of the supreme court’s draft opinion overturning Roe v Wade. In 2021, California governor Gavin Newsom signed new laws protecting abortion providers and patients in the country’s most-populous state:

Updated

In the end, there weren’t enough of them to stop the court’s conservative majority from overturning Roe v Wade, but the dissenting opinion from the court’s three liberal justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan acts as a requiem of sorts for the 49-year-old constitutional right to abortion, now overturned:

Earlier this Term, this court signaled that Mississippi’s stratagem would succeed. Texas was one of the fistful of states to have recently banned abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. It added to that “flagrantly unconstitutional” restriction an unprecedented scheme to “evade judicial scrutiny.” And five justices acceded to that cynical maneuver. They let Texas defy this court’s constitutional rulings, nullifying Roe and Casey ahead of schedule in the Nation’s second largest state.

And now the other shoe drops, courtesy of that same five-person majority. (We believe that the chief justice’s opinion is wrong too, but no one should think that there is not a large difference between upholding a 15-week ban on the grounds he does and allowing states to prohibit abortion from the time of conception.) Now a new and bare majority of this court – acting at practically the first moment possible – overrules Roe and Casey. It converts a series of dissenting opinions expressing antipathy toward Roe and Casey into a decision greenlighting even total abortion bans. It eliminates a 50-year-old constitutional right that safeguards women’s freedom and equal station. It breaches a core rule-of-law principle, designed to promote constancy in the law. In doing all of that, it places in jeopardy other rights, from contraception to same-sex intimacy and marriage. And finally, it undermines the court’s legitimacy.

Kevin McCarthy, leader of the Republicans in the House of Representatives, has cheered the supreme court’s ruling, calling it “the most important pro-life ruling in American history”.

The people have won a victory. The right to life has been vindicated. The voiceless will finally have a voice. This great nation can now live up to its core principle that all are created equal. Not born equal. Created equal.

Republicans are viewed as favorites to take control of the House following this year’s midterm elections, and McCarthy would be a top contender for the job of speaker. In his speech, he alluded to what his priorities might be, should the GOP ascend to the majority.

As encouraging as today’s decision is, our work is far from done. America remains one of only seven countries on earth that allows elective abortions in the third trimester, including China and North Korea. This is radical – but House Democrats continue to support it against the wishes of the American people. This Congress, every House Democrat has voted for extreme policies like taxpayer-funded abortion, on demand, until the point of birth. But Democrats’ radical agenda does not have Americans’ support.

Updated

The largest association of African American physicians in the United States has warned that the supreme court’s decision to overturn abortion rights will harm racial minorities, particularly Black women.

In a statement, president of the National Medical Association Rachel Villanueva said:

This decision is unconstitutional, dangerous and discriminatory. It will not stop abortions from being performed, it will unfortunately only make the procedure more dangerous. Women of color, poor women and other disadvantaged individuals who don’t have the resources to travel to obtain the medical care they need will be disproportionately impacted. At a time when maternal mortality rates are worsening, particularly for Black women, it is deeply disappointing that our institutions are actively harming — not helping — women’s health. Abortion is part of total health care for a woman. Doctors should be able to provide medical care based on scientific fact and evidence-based medicine, and free from any political interference. The entire medical community should be gravely concerned about the precedent this decision sets.

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data from 2019, the most recent year available, Black women have the highest rates of abortion with 23.8 per 1,000 people. Hispanic women had 11.7 abortions per 1,000 people, while for white women, the ratio was 6.6.

Updated

Will the supreme court’s conservative justices stop with Roe v Wade? As Joan E Greve reports, today’s decision in the Dobbs case contains signs that the Republican-appointed majority would like to go after other rights the court has established, such as same-sex marriage and access to contraception:

Many Americans reacted to the supreme court’s decision to reverse Roe v Wade and remove federal abortion rights in the US with shock, but many also asked a terrified question: what might be next?

The conservative justice Clarence Thomas appeared to offer a preview of the court’s potential future rulings, suggesting the rightwing-controlled court may return to the issues of contraception access and marriage equality, threatening LGBTQ rights.

“In future cases, we should reconsider all of this court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell,” Thomas wrote in his concurring opinion to the ruling on Roe.

Congress passes gun control bill

The House of Representatives has passed the bipartisan gun control measure that the Senate approved yesterday. It now awaits action from President Joe Biden, who said he will sign it.

While the bill tightens gun access for some Americans and funds mental health services, it is being passed just a day after a supreme court ruling that expanded the right to carry a concealed weapon nationwide.

Updated

Medical experts have also decried the Dobbs opinion as threatening the health and autonomy of patients nationwide.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists released a statement condemning the supreme court opinion from its president, Iffath A Hoskins, MD, FACOG, reading in part:

Today’s decision is a direct blow to bodily autonomy, reproductive health, patient safety and health equity in the United States.

Reversing the constitutional protection for safe, legal abortion established by the Supreme Court nearly fifty years ago exposes pregnant people to arbitrary, state-based restrictions, regulations, and bans that will leave many people unable to access needed medical care.

The restrictions put forth are not based on science nor medicine; they allow unrelated third parties to make decisions that rightfully and ethically should be made only by individuals and their physicians.

ACOG condemns this devastating decision, which will allow state governments to prevent women from living with autonomy over their bodies and their decisions.

The American Medical Association also released a statement denouncing the Dobbs opinion, with its president Jack Resneck Jr MD, writing:

The American Medical Association is deeply disturbed by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn nearly a half century of precedent protecting patients’ right to critical reproductive health care—representing an egregious allowance of government intrusion into the medical examination room, a direct attack on the practice of medicine and the patient-physician relationship, and a brazen violation of patients’ rights to evidence-based reproductive health services.

States that end legal abortion will not end abortion —they will end safe abortion, risking [devastating] consequences, including patients’ lives.

Updated

CEOs are starting to react to the Dobbs news. Mike Bloomberg has called the decision “the worst attack on the rights of American women in generations – but it will not be the final word. We must make our voices heard at the ballot box.”

Yelp’s co-founder Jeremey Stoppelman said the ruling puts “health in jeopardy, denies them their human rights, and threatens to dismantle the progress we’ve made toward gender equality in the workplace since Roe. Business leaders must speak out now and call on Congress to codify Roe into law.”

Many large US companies including Citigroup, Amazon, Apple and Tesla have pledged to provide travel assistance to employees who are in states that restrict abortions. The reaction from Republicans has been fierce with some threatening to cancel government contracts if they follow through with the plans.

The Walt Disney Company said it would cover employee travel expenses for abortions in light of the supreme court’s decision.

You can read more about the clash here:

Updated

As 150 or so Democratic lawmakers joined angry protesters in front of the supreme court in Washington, plans emerged for scores of marches in towns and cities across the country.

From coast to coast, and border to border, pro-choice and women’s rights groups jumped into action to organise civil action in parks, squares and outside government buildings as a way for ordinary people to express their anger at the ruling that will force pregnancy and parenthood on women and girls in half the country. You can find the map of “we won’t go back” protests here.

After years of political failure, some activists are preparing for direct action and civil disobedience targeting the country’s economy.

The feminist group Women’s March Action is calling on people to walk out of their workplaces and homes, and gather in front of their local courthouse wearing red. “The vast majority of this country supports the right to abortion. When we walk out together, our collective power will shut down the nation and say loud and clear that we will not go back,” said organiser Emiliana Guereca.

Also expect to see plenty of green pañuelos or bandannas – the symbol of the pro-choice movement in Latin America known as the green wave which has led to abortion bans being overturned or relaxed in Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Mexico.

Updated

The day so far

America is reeling from the supreme court’s decision striking down the constitutional right to abortion, with foes of the procedure cheering the justices’ ruling and supporters calling it a calamity. It’s the sort of political earthquake that doesn’t happen in the United States that often.

Here are some of the main takeaways:

Updated

Today’s abortion ruling might not have happened without Donald Trump. During his time in office, the Republican president appointed three of the conservative justices who voted to overturn Roe v Wade.

But as the New York Times reports, Trump is apparently not a fan of what the justices have handed down. Ever since a draft opinion of the court’s decision leaked last month, he’s worried about what it will mean for the support of voters who were decisive in his election loss in 2020, and who he would need to turn to should he run again in 2024.

From the report:

Privately, Mr. Trump has told people repeatedly that he believes it will be “bad for Republicans.”

The decision, Mr. Trump has told friends and advisers, will anger suburban women, a group who helped tilt the 2020 presidential race to Joseph R. Biden Jr., and will lead to a backlash against Republicans in the November midterm elections.

His advisers had encouraged Mr. Trump to keep quiet about the issue until a ruling was issued, in part to ensure he was not accused of trying to influence the decision. Still, the contrast between Mr. Trump and conservatives who have heralded the decision and who worked in his administration, such as former Vice President Mike Pence, has been striking. On Friday morning, Mr. Pence issued a statement saying, “Life won,” as he called for abortion opponents to keep fighting “in every state in the land.”

A spokesman for Mr. Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment about his private remarks, or his view of the ruling. But in an interview that Fox News published after the decision on Friday, Mr. Trump, asked about his role, said, “God made the decision.” He said the decision was “following the Constitution, and giving rights back when they should have been given long ago.”

“I think, in the end, this is something that will work out for everybody,” Mr. Trump told Fox News.

Updated

Biden closed his speech by denouncing the supreme court’s conservative majority and appealing for his supporters to act at the ballot box.

The conservative majority of the supreme court shows how extreme it is, how far removed they are from the majority of this country. It made the United States an outlier among developed nations in the world. But this decision must not be the final word. My administration will use all of its appropriate lawful powers. Congress must act. But with your vote, you can act. You can have the final word. This is not over.

It remains to be seen how much the ruling will animate voters, particularly Democrats, in the upcoming midterm elections:

Biden has vowed to do whatever his administration can to allow people to access abortions where the procedure is legal, and warned states against effort to hinder people seeking reproductive health care.

I will do all in my power to protect a woman’s right in states where they will face the consequences of today’s decision. Now, the court’s decision casts a dark shadow over large swaths of the land, many states in this country still recognize a woman’s right to choose. So a woman lives in a state that restricts abortion, the supreme court’s decision does not prevent her from traveling from her home state to the state that allows it, does not prevent a doctor in that state from treating her.

Biden warned that, “Any state or local official, high or low, tries to interfere with a woman’s exercising their basic right to travel, I will do everything in my power to fight that deeply unamerican attack.”

He also said he was directing the health and human services department to ensure abortion pills “are available to the fullest extent possible.”

Biden is connecting the court’s action against abortion with the upcoming midterm elections, saying Americans must choose politicians who back abortion rights if they want to see the conservative justices’ ruling undone.

Voters need to make their voices heard. This fall, they must elect more senators and representatives who codify woman’s right to choose in the federal law once again, elect more state leaders to protect this right at the local level. We need to restore the protections of Roe as law of the land. We need to elect officials who will do that. This fall, Roe is on the ballot. Personal freedoms are on the ballot. The right to privacy, liberty equality. They’re all on the ballot.

Overturning Roe 'a sad day for the court and for the country' – Biden

President Joe Biden has decried the supreme court’s decision overturning the constitutional right to abortion, warning that it risks the health of women nationwide.

“The court has done what it has never done done before: expressly take away a constitutional right that is so fundamental to so many Americans,” Biden said in a speech from the White House. “It’s a sad day for the court and for the country.”

“Now with Roe gone, let’s be very clear, the health and life of women in this nation are now at risk.”

Updated

States nationwide are continuing to act in the wake of the supreme court’s Dobbs decision, with Republican governors and officials moving to restrict abortion access.

“This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice in it and be glad. Today, along with millions across Louisiana and America, I rejoice with my departed Mom and the unborn children with her in Heaven!”, Louisiana attorney general Jeff Landry said in a statement where he announced a law banning abortion in the state was now in effect.

South Dakota has a similar such “trigger law” banning the procedure, but governor Kristi Noem and the leaders of the state legislature also announced a special session “to save lives and help mothers impacted by the decision”.

“We must do what we can to help mothers in crisis know that there are options and resources available for them. Together, we will ensure that abortion is not only illegal in South Dakota – it is unthinkable,” Noem said.

The second-in-command of the state senate Lee Schoenbeck elaborated on the reasons for calling the legislature back into session: “A special session is necessary because we could not have known this winter in session that we would have this opportunity and new responsibility to protect lives presented by the Supreme Court’s decision. Also, there will be more work to do on the many challenges a post-Roe world presents in regular session next January”.

In Illinois, Democratic governor JB Pritzker announced a special legislative session to make the state a haven for abortion access in a region where many of its neighbors will do the opposite.

‘A slap in the face to women’: Nancy Pelosi reacts to the overturning of Roe v Wade

Republican senator Susan Collins supported justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh during the confirmation hearings and repeatedly reassured the public that they would not vote to overturn Roe v Wade. But both men joined in today’s opinion doing just that, and now the Maine lawmaker says she was duped.

“This decision is inconsistent with what Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh said in their testimony and their meetings with me, where they both were insistent on the importance of supporting long-standing precedents that the country has relied upon,” Collins said.

She elaborated further on her thoughts regarding the decision:

The Supreme Court has abandoned a fifty-year precedent at a time that the country is desperate for stability. This ill-considered action will further divide the country at a moment when, more than ever in modern times, we need the Court to show both consistency and restraint. Throwing out a precedent overnight that the country has relied upon for half a century is not conservative. It is a sudden and radical jolt to the country that will lead to political chaos, anger, and a further loss of confidence in our government.

Collins noted she supported legislation that would codify the rights previously established by Roe v Wade into law, though its unclear if such legislation would win enough support from her Republican colleagues to make it through the senate.

“Our goal with this legislation is to do what the Court should have done — provide the consistency in our abortion laws that Americans have relied upon for 50 years,” Collins said.

Susan Collins with Brett Kavanaugh in 2018.
Susan Collins with Brett Kavanaugh in 2018. Photograph: José Luis Magaña/AP

Updated

The supreme court will issue more opinions on Monday 27 June, according to its website.

If today’s ruling on abortion access and Thursday’s ruling expanding gun rights are any indication, the conservative majority may continue making major shifts to US law in the seven cases it has yet to issue opinions on.

Updated

Justice department condemns supreme court abortion decision

Attorney general Merrick Garland has denounced the supreme court ruling overturning abortion rights, warning it will harm people nationwide, particularly the poor and racial minorities.

From his statement:

The Supreme Court has eliminated an established right that has been an essential component of women’s liberty for half a century – a right that has safeguarded women’s ability to participate fully and equally in society. And in renouncing this fundamental right, which it had repeatedly recognized and reaffirmed, the Court has upended the doctrine of stare decisis, a key pillar of the rule of law.

The Justice Department strongly disagrees with the Court’s decision. This decision deals a devastating blow to reproductive freedom in the United States. It will have an immediate and irreversible impact on the lives of people across the country. And it will be greatly disproportionate in its effect – with the greatest burdens felt by people of color and those of limited financial means.

Garland said the department would work to keep abortion accessible, and in particular counter efforts to restrict access to abortion drug mifepristone:

The Department strongly supports efforts by Congress to codify Americans’ reproductive rights, which it retains the authority to do. We also support other legislative efforts to ensure access to comprehensive reproductive services. And we stand ready to work with other arms of the federal government that seek to use their lawful authorities to protect and preserve access to reproductive care. In particular, the FDA has approved the use of the medication Mifepristone. States may not ban Mifepristone based on disagreement with the FDA’s expert judgment about its safety and efficacy.

Protestors gathered on the steps of the supreme court after the ruling today. “I don’t care what that vote is today. They cannot stop us. They cannot control our lives. We’re going to do everything that we can possibly do, we’re going to continue to organize,” said Representative Maxine Waters, a Democrat representing California’s 43rd district.

“We’re going to turn out a huge vote of women. We’re going to see if we can get something on the ballot real soon. We’re going to do everything we can possibly do.”

Updated

Exactly how did the supreme court justices vote in their decision ending the nationwide right to abortion? While the ruling represents the successful conclusion of the anti-abortion movement’s quest to overturn Roe v Wade, the exact breakdown of the vote elaborates on some of the differences among the court’s conservative justices.

At issue in the case, Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, was a Mississippi law that banned abortion after 15 weeks gestation. The justices ruled both on that law’s validity, and the Roe v Wade precedent. SCOTUSblog has a breakdown looking at how they each voted:

The vote to overturn Roe was 5-4, with Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett joining Alito’s opinion. Chief Justice John Roberts filed a separate opinion, agreeing with the court’s decision to uphold the Mississippi law but arguing that the court should not have decided the broader question of whether the Constitution protects abortion at all. The court’s three liberals, Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan, filed a joint dissent.

Today’s decision has shocked many, but it’s no surprise and hundreds of protesters descended on the supreme court building in Washington DC within minutes of the decision’s publication, chanting, “We trust women, we won’t go back.”

There are plans for protests in cities across the country – and world – including in New York, where pro-choice activists, human rights groups and trade unions will gather in Washington Square Park in Lower Manhattan at 6.30pm. Illinois’s governor has pledged to make the state a haven for women who need an abortion, as have the leaders of Chicago, where a protest organized by a coalition of local groups including ACLU of Illinois, the Chicago Abortion Fund and Planned Parenthood Illinois Action is planned for 5pm at Federal Plaza.

Abortion rights activists react outside the supreme court in Washington on Friday, June 24, 2022.
Abortion rights activists react outside the supreme court in Washington on Friday, June 24, 2022. Photograph: Jacquelyn Martin/AP

Expect to see protests outside US embassies and consulates in cities across the world, including in Edinburgh, Scotland, at 1pm Eastern time (6pm local time)

Updated

President Joe Biden will address the nation at 12.30pm eastern time following the supreme court decision overturning abortion rights, the White House has announced.

Ahead of his speech, take a look at the the Guardian’s map detailing where abortion can likely still be accessed, and where it will no longer be available:

Updated

Just how big of a deal is the supreme court’s ruling? To Lawrence Gostin, faculty director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown Law, its decision to strike down the 49-year old Roe ruling is “the single greatest reversal of women’s rights in American history”.

From his statement:

This Court’s blatant disregard for settled precedent, along with the previously leaked draft opinion, undermines the Court’s legitimacy and America’s trust in the federal judiciary. But even more troubling are the impacts on women who live in states banning or restricting abortion access. We are going to see ‘Two Americas,’ one that protects women’s health and rights and one where women will have few, if any, reproductive rights. The Supreme Court’s decision will widen racial and health disparities across America. The Supreme Court has made the United States an outlier among peer countries that safeguard the right to abortion.

Tarah Demant, interim national director for programs, advocacy and government affairs at Amnesty International USA, said the ruling marked a “grim milestone” in US history:

People will be forced to give birth. They’ll be forced to seek unsafe abortions. This is the outcome of a decades-long campaign to control the bodies of women, girls, and people who can become pregnant. And it paves the way for unprecedented state legislation to criminalize abortion, as well as other bills that will aim to strip human rights from people in the United States, including the potential for bills that will affect access to birth control, gender, and marriage equality as well as other anti-discrimination laws... Regardless of what the Supreme Court says, abortion remains a human right and states all over the world are still obligated to uphold that right.

Updated

Missouri is claiming to be the first state in the country to end abortion entirely, with an opinion from attorney general Eric Schmitt:

Schmitt, a Republican, has also made a lengthy post about his efforts to stop the procedure:

Conservative groups are cheering the supreme court’s decision overturning Roe v Wade as the successful culmination of decades of work to restrict abortion access.

Jeanne Mancini, president of March for Life, put it:

For nearly fifty years, the Supreme Court has imposed an unpopular and extreme abortion policy on our nation, but as the annual March for Life gives witness to, Roe’s allowance of abortion-on-demand, up-until-birth has never represented where most Americans stand on life! Today, the ability to determine whether and when to limit abortion was returned to the American people who have every right to enact laws like Mississippi’s which protect mothers and unborn babies after 15 weeks - when they have fully formed noses, can suck their thumb, and feel pain.

President and CEO Brooke Rollins of the America First Policy Institute noted the role of Donald Trump, who appointed three of the conservative justices whose votes were crucial in the ruling:

It should also be noted that this historic day for democracy, nearly 50 years in the making, would not have been possible without the leadership and commitment to life of President Donald J. Trump. Thank you, Mr. President!

Another key player in laying the groundwork for Roe to fall was Mitch McConnell, who as top Senate Republican in 2016 stopped then-president Barack Obama from installing a justice of his choosing for a vacant seat on the supreme court. Trump ended up filling that opening with Neil Gorsuch, who voted to strike down Roe.

Here’s what McConnell had to say about the ruling:

The Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Dobbs is courageous and correct. This is an historic victory for the Constitution and for the most vulnerable in our society.

For 50 years, states have been unable to enact even modest protections for unborn children. More than 90% of Europe restricts abortion on demand after 15 weeks, but every state in America has been forced to allow it more than a month past that, after a baby can feel pain, yawn, stretch, and suck his or her thumb. Judicial activists declared that every state had to handle abortion like China and North Korea and no state could handle it like France or Germany.

Not anymore. Now the American people get their voice back.

Former president Barack Obama has condemned the supreme court’s ruling overturning Roe v Wade, calling it an attack on “the essential freedoms of millions of Americans”:

President Joe Biden is expected to address the nation:

The ruling overturning Roe v Wade is the culmination of decades of work by conservatives – assisted by a president named Donald Trump, Jessica Glenza reports:

The short version of how Americans lost their right to terminate a pregnancy might be summed up in one name: Trump.

The real estate tycoon and reality-TV star first shocked the world by winning the US presidency, then rewarded his base by confirming three supreme court justices to a nine-member bench, thus rebalancing the court to lean conservative for a generation to come.

That short road led to Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, an opinion released this week in which supreme court justices voted 6-3 to overturn the landmark case Roe v Wade, which in 1973 granted a constitutional right to abortion.

Updated

With the supreme court’s ruling overturning Roe v Wade, conservatives have struck a major blow against abortion access in the United States. The Guardian’s Jessica Glenza breaks down what it means:

The supreme court has ruled there is no constitutional right to abortion in the United States, upending a precedent set nearly 50 years ago in the landmark Roe v Wade case – a rare reversal of long-settled law that will fracture the foundations of modern reproductive rights in America.

The court’s ruling came in the pivotal case Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, in which the last abortion clinic in Mississippi opposed the state’s efforts to ban abortion after 15 weeks and overturn Roe in the process.

The reversal of the 1973 opinion will again allow individual US states to ban abortion. At least 26 states are expected to do so immediately or as soon as practicable.

Supreme court overturns Roe v Wade

The supreme court has overturned Roe v Wade, ending nearly a half-century of abortion rights in the United States.

The decision split along ideological lines, with the six conservative justices voting for it and the three liberals dissenting.

The supreme court will issue its first opinion of the day in one minute, at 10am eastern time. Assuming there’s more than one, subsequent decisions will come in 10-minute intervals.

Follow the US politics live blog for updates, or check out the opinions on the court’s website.

Updated

If the supreme court issues a ruling today that weakens the government’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, one wonders what that would mean for places like Phoenix. As Nina Lakhani reports, the city is struggling with the opioid epidemic, and extreme heat is making it worse:

Andy Brack was out cold with his head slumped back on the driver’s seat of a white pickup truck, a faint blue tinge around his lips. His friend, Ellen, had called 911 after the 50-year-old lost consciousness while driving to the store.

Brack had been smoking fentanyl for two days straight, according to Ellen, who managed to stop the vehicle from crashing. It was around 4.30pm and boiling outside, almost 108F (42C), and the pickup didn’t have air conditioning. She was doing CPR compressions when the paramedics arrived.

Unable to rouse him, the paramedics administered the drug naloxone via an injection into his upper left arm. The drug, widely known by the brand name Narcan, is an emergency treatment for opioid overdose that temporarily reverses the depressive and potentially fatal effects on the cardiovascular and respiratory systems.

Brack came to abruptly. He refused to be taken to hospital and became angry as the opioid withdrawals set-in. “I’m sober, I need a cigarette,” he said to Ellen as they drove off.

Another takeaway from the January 6 hearings is that a number of Republicans were worried enough about their conduct after the 2020 election to ask for pardons from Trump before he left office, as Martin Pengelly reports:

The Republicans Matt Gaetz and Mo Brooks sought a blanket pardon of members of Congress involved in Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn his defeat by Joe Biden through lies about electoral fraud, the House January 6 committee revealed on Thursday.

A witness said Andy Biggs of Arizona, Louie Gohmert of Texas and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania also contacted the White House about securing pardons. The same witness, former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, said she heard Marjorie Taylor Greene, an extremist from Georgia, wanted a pardon too.

The committee displayed an email written by Brooks, of Alabama, on 11 January 2021, five days after the deadly attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters.

The January 6 committee won’t meet for another few weeks but it’s worth reading this story of the hearing’s revelations and what we know about Donald Trump’s reaction, from the Guardian’s David Smith:

Somewhere in Bedminster, New Jersey, on Thursday afternoon, it seems quite possible that an elderly man was sitting in front of a television howling with rage.

Donald Trump, who spends summers at his Bedminster golf club, is a TV guy, a ratings guy. So the widely televised hearings of the congressional committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol hit him where it hurts.

The former US president has reportedly been glued to them – and has not liked what he’s seen. As the panel has presented a carefully crafted case against Trump as the leader of a failed coup, he is said to be livid that there is no one in the room to speak up for him.

Updated

Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the case in which the supreme court could overturn abortion rights, is not the only one in which the justices could make a ruling that touches on a contentious issue in American society.

There’s also Kennedy v Bremerton School District, which deals with a football coach’s practice of praying after games and could end up expanding the types of religious activities allowed at public schools. A ruling in that direction would come just days after the court opened the door to religious schools receiving public funds in a decision that liberal justice Sonia Sotomayor warned weakened the separation between church and state.

Then there’s West Virginia v EPA. The justices are considering a plan announced by former president Barack Obama to lower power plants’ emissions — but which never took effect. The fear is that the conservative majority will use the case as an opportunity to take away major regulatory powers from the government.

Finally, there’s a case that doesn’t affect Americans but rather people on its borders. Biden v. Texas represents the sitting president’s attempt to end the “remain in Mexico” policy implemented by his predecessor Donald Trump, which forced many asylum seekers to stay south of the border while their cases were heard.

The supreme court could today release their opinions on all of these, or none, or some combination in between.

America braces for more conservative rulings from supreme court

Good morning, US politics blog reader. Today could be one for the history books. The supreme court will announce more rulings at 10am eastern time, and among the cases outstanding is one in which the conservative majority is widely expected to strike down the nationwide right to abortion established by the Roe v Wade decision. A draft opinion that leaked last month showed the court prepared to overturn it and yesterday, the conservative bloc ruled against a New York law regulating concealed weapons in a decision expected to make it more difficult to control guns nationwide – a sign of the court’s pronounced rightward drift.

Here’s what else is going on today:

  • The House of Representatives is expected to take up a bipartisan gun control compromise that passed the Senate last night, and will probably approve it. President Joe Biden has said he is ready to sign it.
  • White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre briefs reporters at 2pm eastern time, though Biden has nothing public on his scheduled today.
  • A campaign has kicked off to deprive Fox News of ad revenue over claims that the network is “working overtime to fuel the next insurrection”.
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