The US Supreme Court has overturned a historic ruling which gave American citizens the right to abortion five decades ago.
It means that abortion will be banned almost instantly in 13 US states due to the triggering of laws designed to come into effect in this scenario. It is also expected that around half of the US states will ban abortion or place heavy restrictions on it.
Initially, a 1973 Supreme Court ruling in Roe v Wade concluded that the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution provided a right to privacy which extended to protect a woman's right to abortion. This decision was further enshrined in 1992 in Planned Parenthood v Casey which protected access to abortion until 'viability' - when the foetus can survive outside the womb (usually between 22 and 24 weeks of pregnancy).
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Justice Alito, in the final opinion issued on Friday, wrote that Roa and Planned Parenthood v Casey was in fact wrong that day. “We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled. The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision," he wrote
He added that the authority to regulate abortions rests with the political branches, not the courts.
In 2020, the United States saw more than 930,000 abortions, according to the most up-to-date statistics from the Guttmacher Institute. The Pew Research Center also suggests that more than 60 per cent of American citizens believe abortion should remain legal in either all or most cases.
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