Fresh protests across the US against Supreme Court’s abortion ruling
- America woke up to a new level of division: between states that will now or soon deny the right to abortion, enshrined for 50 years, and those that still allow it
- Dozens of new protests were planned on Saturday from coast to coast, a day after demonstrations across the country that were largely peaceful
Abortion rights supporters prepared to fan out across America on Saturday for a second day of protest against the Supreme Court’s thunderbolt ruling, as state after conservative state moved swiftly to ban the procedure.
Deeply polarised America woke up to a new level of division: between states that will now or soon deny the right to abortion, enshrined for 50 years, and those that still allow it.
Dozens of new protests were planned on Saturday from coast to coast, a day after demonstrations across the country that were largely peaceful – although police fired tear gas on protesters in Phoenix, Arizona and police in riot gear moved to disperse a hard core of protesters in downtown Los Angeles.
Fuelling the mobilisation, many fear that the Supreme Court, with a clear conservative majority made possible by Donald Trump, might now set its sights on rights like same-sex marriage and contraception.
At least eight right-leaning states imposed immediate abortion bans – with a similar number to follow suit in coming weeks – after the court eliminated constitutional protections for the procedure, drawing criticism from some of America’s closest allies around the world.
The court overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision enshrining a woman’s right to an abortion, saying individual states can restrict or ban the procedure themselves.
US President Joe Biden, who called the ruling a “tragic error” stemming from “extreme ideology,” spoke out again on Saturday morning as he signed a gun control bill, calling the decision shocking.