Roe vs Wade: America’s rival camps dig in for fight after abortion ruling
- America divided after the US Supreme Court overturned a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion
- States start implementing bans, and supporters and foes of abortion rights mapped out next moves
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Protests across US after Supreme Court's decision to overturn abortion rights
Elected leaders across the US political divide rallied for a long fight ahead on abortion – state by state and in Congress – with total bans in force or expected soon in half of the vast country.
Dozens of arrests and some instances of vandalism were reported during a weekend of mostly peaceful protests that turned disorderly in places – as the country grapples with a new level of division: between states where abortion is or will soon be illegal, and those that still allow it.
Conservative-led US state legislatures have moved swiftly, with at least eight imposing immediate bans on abortion – many with exceptions only if a woman’s life is in danger – and a similar number to follow suit within weeks.
In a first glimpse of the legal battles ahead, the nation’s largest abortion provider Planned Parenthood filed suit in Utah seeking to block the state’s ban.
And Democratic governors in Michigan and Wisconsin have stepped in to try to keep abortion legal in their Midwestern states.