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| America After The Decision To Abolish Abortion |
US Supreme Court nullifies women's constitutional right to abortion
1- Repeal the historic ruling known as "Roe v. Wade"
Millions of women in the United States have lost the legal right to abortion after the Supreme Court overturned a 50-year-old ruling that made it legal across the country.
The court overturned the landmark ruling known as "Roe v. Wade", weeks after an unprecedented leaked document suggested it favored doing so.
The ruling will change abortion rights in America, as it is now up to each individual state to ban abortion.
Half of the US states are expected to impose new restrictions or bans.
And 13 states have already passed laws banning abortion automatically once the Supreme Court ruling. It is possible that a number of other states will impose restrictions on abortion.
The Supreme Court's ruling is expected to affect the right of some 36 million women of childbearing age to have an abortion, according to research from Planned Motherhood, a health care organization that sponsors abortions.
The Supreme Court was hearing a case that challenged Mississippi's ban on abortion after 15 weeks.
The ruling gave American women an absolute right to abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy but allowed for restrictions in the second trimester and a ban in the third.
But in the decades that followed, anti-abortion provisions gradually curtailed a woman's right to abortion in more than a dozen states.
Friday's ruling amounts to a sweeping reversal of the Supreme Court's legal precedent - an extremely rare move - and is likely to lead to political battles that are dividing the country.
In states where opinions about abortion are almost equally divided between disapproval and acceptance, such as Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, the legality of abortion can be determined on a case-by-case basis. In other cases, the ruling could trigger a new round of legal battles, including whether individuals can perform abortions outside state boundaries or order abortion drugs through postal services.
Democratic governors of several states, such as California, New Mexico, and Michigan, have already announced plans to put abortion rights in their state constitutions if the Roe v. Wade ruling is overturned.
US Vice President Kamala Harris also met with Democratic attorneys general for seven states on Thursday to discuss how to defend abortion rights.
2- Mississippi governor's decision to abolish abortion
Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves quickly welcomed the ruling, saying his state "led the nation to overcome one of the greatest injustices in our country's history."
"This decision will lead directly to more hearts to come alive, more prams, more school grade cards for the kids... It's a happy day!"
"The ruling has given the American people a fresh start," said former Vice President Mike Pence, a vocal critic of Roe v. Wade.
"Having had this second chance at life," he wrote, "we must neither rest nor relent until the sanctity of life is restored to the center of American law in every state."
On the other side of the divide, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the "Republican-dominated Supreme Court" had fulfilled the party's "dark and extreme goal."
"American women today have less freedom than their mothers," she wrote. "This harsh sentence is outrageous and heart-wrenching."
"It's a very sad moment," the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) group tweeted.
"No matter what the courts say, no one should be forced to become pregnant against their will...Abortion is our right. We will not stop fighting for it," she added.