Roe v Wade overturned – latest: Nationwide protests condemn Supreme Court decision as clinics close across US

Thousands of protesters hit the streets across the US on Friday and Saturday following the US Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the constitutional right to abortion care by overturning the landmark 1973 decision in Roe v Wade.

Joe Biden has urged voters to support lawmakers who will codify abortion rights into law, calling the high court’s decision a “sad day” for the court and country after the court’s conservative majority took the unprecedented step to strip a constitutional right from Americans.

The president also blamed former president Donald Trump for nominating justices willing to undermine established precedent, while clinics across the US in states that have outlawed abortion prepared to close their doors, even as patients wait to return for appointments.

Across news networks on Sunday, Republican officials defended so-called “trigger” laws that make abortions illegal in nearly all cases, while Democrats urged Congress to fortify federal protections.

US Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez suggested Congress should consider impeaching justices who told the Senate in their confirmation hearings that they believed Roe was settled precedent.

Key Points

• Supreme Court overturns Roe v Wade

• Abortion rights protesters descend on Supreme Court

• How the ‘pro-life’ movement killed Roe V Wade

• Quarter of abortion clinics will close without Roe

• Democrats urge Google to stop steering abortion patients to ‘fake clinics’ in search results

Presenters criticise Roe v. Wade decision at 2022 BET Awards

08:53 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

Taraji P. Henson addressed the Supreme Court overturning of Roe v. Wade at the 2022 BET Awards last night.

The actress said: “It’s about damn time we talk about the fact that guns have more rights than a woman. It’s a sad day in America.”

“A weapon that can take lives has more power than a woman who can give life if she chooses to,” Henson added.

Roe v. Wade was a strong theme of speeches at the awards night, as singer and actress Janelle Monáe presented the first award saying: “Owning our truth and expressing ourselves freely and unapologetically in a world that tries to control and police our bodies, my body and our decisions.”

Supreme Court’s reversal of abortion rights is a ‘red alert’ for LGBT+ community

08:30 , Maroosha Muzaffar

The US Supreme Court’s reversal of constitutional protections for the right to an abortion has raised fears among civil rights groups and LGBT+ advocates that its ruling could lead to challenges against marriage equality and other rights previously defended by the court.

Read the full story by Alex Woodward here:

Supreme Court’s reversal of abortion rights is a ‘red alert’ to LGBT+ community

Videos show LAPD throwing abortion rights protesters including Full House actress Jodie Sweetin to the ground

08:00 , Maroosha Muzaffar

Abortion rights protesters, including Full House actress Jodie Sweetin, were shoved to the ground by police officers during a demonstration in Los Angeles on Saturday.

Video footage posted on social media appeared to show members of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) roughly pushing, throwing, and hitting protesters with their hands and batons.

Among them was Sweetin, 40, who played Stephanie Tanner in the 1980s and 1990s TV sitcom Full House and its recent sequel Fuller House.

Read the full story here:

Videos show LAPD throwing abortion rights demonstrators to the ground

Rudy Giuliani ‘slapped on back and called a scumbag’ by shop worker on Staten Island

07:30 , Maroosha Muzaffar

Rudy Giuliani was slapped on the back and called a “scumbag” by a shop worker over the Supreme Court ruling overturning abortion rights in the US.

The former New York City mayor and close aide to Donald Trump told The New York Post that he was berated by a grocery store worker on Staten Island on Sunday, while out campaigning for his son Andrew Giuliani to be governor of New York.

Read the full story here:

Rudy Giuliani ‘slapped on back and called a scumbag’ by shop worker on Staten Island

Australian PM bashes US Supreme Court for abortion ruling

07:00 , Maroosha Muzaffar

Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese has said that the US Supreme Court’s abortion ruling is a “setback for women and their right to control their own bodies and their lives.”

Mr Albanese told ABC that women were “entitled to their own views, but not to impose their views on women for whom this is a deeply personal decision.”

He added: “That is, in my view, one for an individual woman to make based upon their own circumstances, including the health implications.

“This decision has caused enormous distress. And it is a setback for women and their right to control their own bodies and their lives in the United States. It is a good thing that in Australia, this is not a matter for partisan political debate,” he said.

Arkansas governor defends abortion ban that makes no exception for rape or incest

06:30 , Maroosha Muzaffar

Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson defended his state’s controversial law that makes all abortions illegal in all cases except to save the life of the patient in a medical emergency on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday morning.

Asked by host Chuck Todd whether he is comfortable if a “13 year old in Arkansas is raped by a relative, that 13 year old cannot get an abortion,” the governor said he would “prefer a different outcome than that”.

“That’s not the debate today in Arkansas. It might be in the future,” he said, adding that the law currently bans abortions with only one exception.

Read the full story here:

A child raped by relative cannot legally get abortion in Arkansas, governor confirms

There are still seven cases left for the Supreme Court to decide this term

06:00 , Alex Woodward

Supreme Court justices will return to the court on Monday morning with seven argued cases to decide this term, set to end later this month or in July.

Rulings are released one by one on the court’s website beginning at 10 am EST, in 10-minute intervals. They are released in reverse-ranking order of justices’ seniority. Opinions from Chief Justice John Roberts typically are released last.

We do not know which cases will be decided on each opinion-issuance day or in what order they will released.

But remaining cases include a potentially landmark decision in West Virginia v the Environmental Protection Agency, a high-stakes climiate crisis case that could set limits on the Biden administration’s attempts to slow the damage by regulating greenhouse gases.

The court is likely to schedule at least one more opinion issuance day next week.

Demand for abortion pills grows as states impose ban

05:30 , Maroosha Muzaffar

After the Supreme Court ruling on abortions, Just the Pill — a non profit organisation that arranges abortion pills in several states — received nearly 100 requests for appointments, the New York Times reported.

Officials said that that is about four times the number of requests they received on a daily basis before the court-imposed ban.

Abortion pills are going to be even more significant and sought after as some states like Texas quickly halted abortions after the court ruling.

Maternal mortality rates in the US outpace other industrialised nations. It’s about to get worse

05:00 , Alex Woodward

Without access to abortion care or financial support and guaranteed healthcare, the nation’s most vulnerable women could be forced to carry unwanted or unsafe pregnancies to term, or self-manage abortions, worrying health officials and physicians that the end of constitutional protections for abortion access will have a devastating impact to maternal health outcomes.

Rates of pregnancy-related deaths have steadily risen in recent years, increasing from 20.1 deaths per 100,000 births in 2019 to 23.8 in 2020 – easily outpacing other industrialised nations.

How outlawing abortion will worsen America’s maternal mortality crisis

ACLU to ask judge for emergency injunction against Florida’s abortion law

04:00 , Alex Woodward

The American Civil Liberties Union and abortion rights advocates will ask a state judge in Florida on Monday for an emergency injunction against a staet law that outlaws abortions at 15 weeks of pregnancy, as abortion rights groups move the battle against anti-abortion laws from federal courts to state courts.

Florida’s law is set to take effect Friday. The legal groups argue that the law violates privacy protections established by the state constitution – mirroring the argument at the centre of Roe v Wade.

Abortion pill manufacturer ‘well prepared’ for surge in demand after Supreme Court ruling

03:00 , Alex Woodward

Danco Laboratories, one of the pharmaceutical companies that manufactures mifepristone, the FDA-approved drug for abortion care, said the company is “well prepared” for any surge in demand after the US Supreme Court revoked the constitutional right to abortion.

Supply of the brand-name drug Mifeprex is “plentiful and stable,” according to a company spokesperson.

“We are incredibly disappointed by, and not at all in agreement with the decision [the Supreme Court] made,” the spokesperson said. “Danco remains steadfast in our commitment to assuring that healthcare providers and women have access to Mifeprex as an option for safe and effective early abortion.”

A two-drug regimen of mifepristone and misoprostol – drugs that are available over the counter in some countries – is overwhelmingly safe and effective, and can be taken in the comfort of a patient’s home.

Medication abortion is by far the most common form of abortion care in the US, accounting for nearly 60 per cent of all procedures. The drug was approved for use by the US Food and Drug Administration in most cases up to 10 weeks of pregnancy in 2000.

Last year, the FDA permanently lifted the in-person requirement for medication abortion prescriptions, allowing patients to access the drugs via telehealth appointments and online pharmacies so patients can take the drugs at home.

State restrictions on abortion care largely do not distinguigh between procedural abortions and mediation abortions. Anti-abortion state legislators are increasingly targeting the drugs, including laws against telemedicine appointments, online prescriptions and mail-ordering

The Justice Department has warned states against implementing bans on FDA-approved abortion drugs, setting up looming legal battles over their access.

Baltimore provides $300,000 in financial support to abortion providers

02:00 , Alex Woodward

The mayor of Baltimore, Maryland announced that the city will grant $300,000 to abortion providers and family-planning services as a show of support to “welcome women seeking these services with open arms.”

Mayor Brandon Scott announced the deal, granted in conjunction with the City Council and distributed through the Baltimore Civic Fund, after the US Supreme Court revoked the constitutional right to abortion.

“We are morally obligated to make Baltimore a safe haven for care-seekers, and we are committed to doing just that,” he said.

More than 80 district attorneys and prosecutors refuse to enforce anti-abortion laws

01:00 , Alex Woodward

Prosecutors across the country, including from 12 states with “trigger bans” that will make abortion illegal in their respective states, said they will not prosecute people who seek or provide abortion care.

A group of more than 80 district attorneys and other elected prosecutors signed a statement with Fair and Just Prosecution, wriging that “not all of us agree on a personal or moral level on the issue of abortion ... but we stand together in our firm belief that prosecutors have a responsibility to refrain from using limited criminal legal system resources to criminalize personal medical decisions.”

The signatories represent nearly 90 million people across 29 states.

The Independent spoke with prosecutors across several states, including Texas and Louisiana, where imminent “trigger” laws will criminalise abortion care and threaten providers with jailtime, about why they refused to pursue such cases.

Why these prosecutors refuse to enforce anti-abortion laws in their states

The Supreme Court’s decision could endanger rights to gay marriage, trans healthcare and gay sex, legal analysts

Monday 27 June 2022 00:00 , Alex Woodward

Legal scholars and civil rights pioneers argued that the legal reasoning behind a decision to revoke half a century of abortion rights could be used to strike down LGBT+ rights, from decisions on marriage equality to gay sex and trans healthcare.

Jim Obergefell, whose lawsuit against the state of Ohio led to the Supreme Court ruling that gay marriage was protected by the Constitution, said “people should be terrified.”

The Independent’s Io Dodds has this in-depth report:

‘People should be terrified’: What US Supreme Court could come for after Roe v Wade

Supreme Court’s reversal of abortion rights is a ‘red alert’ to LGBT+ community

Sunday 26 June 2022 23:00 , Alex Woodward

The concurring opinion from Justice Clarence Thomas in the landmark ruling to overturn the right to abortion that has raised alarms for LGBT+ rights.

Justice Thomas suggested that the court “reconsider all of this court’s substantive due process precedents” argued under the 14th Amendment – including landmark cases involving same-sex marriages, gay sex, and contraception.

Supreme Court’s reversal of abortion rights is a ‘red alert’ to LGBT+ community

‘Crisis pregnancy centres’ vandalised after Supreme Court decision

Sunday 26 June 2022 22:36 , Alex Woodward

Several so-called “crisis pregnancy centres” – nonmedical facilities intended to dissaude people from seeking an abortion – have been vandalised in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the constititional right to an abortion.

Crisis pregnancy centres under attack after Roe v Wade overturned

Megan Rapinoe calls on men to ‘stand up’ after reversal of Roe v Wade

Sunday 26 June 2022 22:00 , Alex Woodward

US soccer star Megan Rapinoe has called on men to “stand up” to defend abortion rights, telling members of the media “I should not be the loudest voice in the room.”

“No woman should be the loudest voice in the room,” she told reporters in uninterrupted, nine-minute remarks to the press on Friday. “This is what allyship looks like. This is what, frankly, doing the right thing looks like. If not for men, we would have none of these laws, we would have none of the inequality in terms of gender rights, and this onslaught on abortion rights, none of this would be happening. We did not do this to ourselves.”

Tearful Megan Rapinoe calls on men to ‘stand up’ after reversal of Roe v Wade

Abortion rights not discussed at G7

Sunday 26 June 2022 21:40 , Alex Woodward

President Joe Biden told reporters on Sunday that the group of world leaders assembled in Germany for the G7 summit has not yet discussed the Supreme Court’s decision, according to White House pool reporters.

A reported asked whether “the Roe decision [has] come up in any of the meetings” thus far, to which the president responded it was “not related to Ukraine or any of the issues we discussed.”

Asked whether any leaders brought it up, he said no, according to pool reports.

This is what abortion access looks like in every state, now that Roe v Wade is overturned

Sunday 26 June 2022 21:15 , Alex Woodward

Without constitutional protections to the right to an abortion, roughly half of US states will move to immediately or quickly outlaw abortion, including 13 states with so-called “trigger” bans in place – laws designed to take effect after Roe v Wade was overturned.

Seven states have already enacted such laws in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision.

Republican legislators are also moving quickly to amend anti-abortion laws or enact severe restrictions that effectively end abortion access in other states, while 16 states and Washington DC have state-leverl protections that guarantee access to abortion.

What abortion access looks like in every state without Roe v Wade

New poll suggests midterm voter backlash against Republicans over Roe v Wade ruling

Sunday 26 June 2022 20:39 , Alex Woodward

In a CBS News poll released on Sunday, half of Democratic respondents said that Friday’s ruling ending federal abortion protections for every woman in the country made them more likely to participate in the upcoming midterm elections.

By comparison, the percentage of Republicans who said the same was 30 points lower.

Those results may indicate a significant voter enthusiasm gap between Democratic and Republican-leaning voters that could hamstring the GOP’s efforts to win back majorities in the House and Senate, and thereby prevent Joe Biden from passing any significant legislation supported by his party’s base for at least two years.

The Independent’s John Bowden reports from Washington:

New poll suggests midterm voter backlash against GOP over Roe v Wade ruling

Michigan governor shares concerns about ‘active threats’ against elected officials supporting abortion rights

Sunday 26 June 2022 20:15 , Alex Woodward

After facing threats in the wake of Covid-19 restrictions and the 2020 presidential election, Michigan’s Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer said elected officials have to be “much more fearful on a whole new level” as they fight to protect abortion rights.

“I have been the recipient of so much ugliness and hate, often stoked by the former president,” she said. “This is a really scary moment.”

GOP state senate candidate accused of punching Democratic opponent at abortion rights protest drops out of race

Sunday 26 June 2022 19:40 , Alex Woodward

A Republican police officer in Providence, Rhode Island who was running for a state Senate seat has dropped out of the race after video appeared to capture him punching his Democratic opponent at an abortions rights protest after the Supreme Court’s ruling on Friday.

Video posted on social media shows a man being told to leave an abortion rights protest before a man appears and begins to punch him in the face. The crowd rushes around the scene, and a woman who identifies as Democratic state Senate candididate Jennifer Rourke can be seen getting hit by a person who she says is her GOP opponent, off-duty police officer Jeann Lugo.

A criminal investigation is pending.

“The Providence Police Department is criminally investigating the behavior of an off duty Providence Police Officer [on Friday] during a protest at the Rhode Island State House where a female subject was assaulted,” according to a spokesperson.

Mr Lugo said on Twitter that he “will not be running for any office this fall” after video from the incident went viral. He then appeared to close his Twitter account on Saturday.

Most Americans do not approve of Supreme Court’s decision, poll finds

Sunday 26 June 2022 19:11 , Alex Woodward

A CBS News/YouGov poll released on 26 June finds that 59 per cent of Americans disapprove of the Supreme Court ruling, including 67 per cent of women.

Fifty-six per cent of Americans believe it will make women’s lives worse.

A majority of those who disapprove of the ruling believe the Supreme Court will limit same-sex marriage next.

Boris Johnson: Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v Wade a ‘backward step'

Sunday 26 June 2022 18:30 , Alex Woodward

In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade appears to be a “backward step” for women’s rights.

“The United States for me remains a ‘shining city on a hill,’” he said, averting characterising the decision as part of a broader step backwards for democracy in America. “Just on a woman’s right to choose ... seems to be a step backwards.”

France seeks to enshrine abortion rights in constitution after Roe v Wade reversal

Sunday 26 June 2022 18:00 , Alex Woodward

Legislation has been proposed in France to “enshrine the respect for abortion” in the country’s constitution after Roe v Wade was reversed by the US Supreme Court.

Auruore Berge, head of President Emmanuel Macron’s party in the National Assembly, told French radio on Saturday that she’d tabled the bill to counter “fierce opponents” of abortion among France’s far-right National Rally.

Ms Berge called the Supreme Court decision “catastrophic for women around the world,” telling public radio station France Inter that “we must take steps in France today so we do not have any reversal of existing laws tomorrow.”

France seeks to enshrine abortion rights in constitution after Roe v Wade reversal

AOC says Supreme Court justices lied under oath, Congress should consider impeachment

Sunday 26 June 2022 17:45 , Alex Woodward

Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez’s support for impeachment proceedings or investigations into whether Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh lied under oath have yet to be taken up by Democratic leadership, which is facing pressure from the party’s base as Congress and the Biden administration are under pressure to act on abortion rights.

Progressive activists and abortion rights advocates streaming into the streets in protecsts across the US argue that Democratic leaders have little idea about what to do to protect abortion rights beyond fundraising and campaigning on the issue in the hopes of securing a Senate supermajority in the far future.

AOC says Supreme Court justices lied under oath about Roe v Wade, should be impeached

South Dakota governor defends abortion ‘trigger’ law making abortion illegal even in cases of rape of incest

Sunday 26 June 2022 17:21 , Alex Woodward

South Dakota’s law banning abortion in nearly all cases – even in pregnancies from rape or incest – went into effect following the end of Roe v Wade protections.

“I believe every life is precious,” Republican Governor Kristi Noem told CBS Face the Nation on Sunday. “I just never believed that having a tragedy or a tragic situation happen to someone is a reason to have another tragedy occur.”

She pointed to what she called the media’s “fear tactics” that are “scaring women” by highlighting the far-reaching health consequences of ending legal abortion care.

North Dakota’s single abortion clinic is moving to Minnesota

Sunday 26 June 2022 17:15 , Alex Woodward

Following the activation of a “trigger” law that makes abortion illegal in the state without Roe v Wade protections, the last abortion clinic in North Dakota is moving across state lines to Minnesota.

The trigger law is set to take effect 30 days after Friday’s court decision.

Fargo’s Red River Women’s Clinic, the only provider in the state for 20 years, will “provide service as long as we legally can” before it plans to move to Minnesota, according to CNN.

Stacey Abrams calls for federal abortion protections as Georgia’s anti-abortion law to take effect

Sunday 26 June 2022 17:00 , Alex Woodward

Stacey Abrams, the Democratic candidate for the governor of Georgia, called for congressional legislation to protect abortion access following Friday’s Supreme Court ruling ending constitutional protections for care.

“Allowing each state to decide the quality of your citizenship is wrong,” she told CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday.

Georgia’s restrictive abortion law banning abortions at six weeks of pregnancy – before many people know they are pregnant, or roughly two weeks after a missed period – is set to take effect following a pending federal appellate court ruling.

“Women deserve bodily autonomy, the deserve the right to make these choices,” she said. “In Georgia in particular, in a matter of days, this six-week ban will be the law of the land. That is horrendous, that is appalling an it is wrong. As the next governor, I’m going to do everything in my power to reverse it.”

Lindsey Graham suggests SCOTUS will not revoke LGBT+ rights but defends ‘amazing series of events’ leading to abortion ruling

Sunday 26 June 2022 16:31 , Alex Woodward

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham suggests he does not believe the Supreme Court will revoke protections for marriage equality and contraception, after Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in his concurrence with the decision to overturn abortion rights that the court should “correct the error” and revisit those cases.

He then defended the swift appointments of Donald Trump’s nominees to the court – after Mitch McConnell refused to hold any confirmation hearings for Merrick Garland under Obama’s term in office, which would likely have averted the Roe decision, among others – and pointed out that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg “chose not to retire”.

“It was an amazing series of events,” he said.

Elizabeth Warren: Supreme Court ‘burned whatever legitimacy they may still have had’ with Roe ruling

Sunday 26 June 2022 16:13 , Alex Woodward

Senator Elizabeth Warren told ABC’s This Week that she is “deeply concerned” about the Supreme Court’s possible evaluation of critical civil rights decisions that protect marriage equality, contraception and LGBT+ rights, among others.

She said Republicans have been “very overt about trying to get people through the court who didn’t have a published record on Roe but who they knew – wink wink, nod nod – were going to be extremist on the issue.”

“This court has lost legitimacy. They have burned whatever legitimacy they may still have had,” she said. “They just took the last of it and set a torch to it with the Roe v Wade opinion.”

She supports expanding the nine-member court to adjust the imbalance of conservative justices who now make up a majority.

Elizabeth Warren condemns GOP argument to involve government in abortion care

Sunday 26 June 2022 15:36 , Alex Woodward

Democratic US Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, respondind to South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem’s defense of her state’s “trigger” law that makes abortion care illegal, told ABC’s This Week that “what she’s really saying is when this decision is made, it should be made by the government ... that the government should determine whether a pregnancy is forced to continue or whether or not a pregnancy can be terminated.”

Women have relied on Roe v Wade protections for half a century, she said, and to make that decision “with her doctor, with her religious adviser, with her family – not something the government should be in the middle of.”

The senator has called on the Biden administration to declare a public health emergency to protect abortion rights, and demanded that the president bolster federal protections against state-level efforts to criminalise care.

She also has filed legislation to block tech companies from collecting and storing user data that could be exploited by right-wing anti-abortion activists and law enforcement to prosecute abortion providers or people seeking an abortion.

AOC: Congress should consider impeaching Supreme Court justices

Sunday 26 June 2022 15:18 , Alex Woodward

US Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told NBC’s Meet the Press that “there must be consequences for such a deeply destabilizing action and hostile takeover of our Democratic institutions.”

“It sends a blaring signal to all future nominees that they can now lie to duly elected members of the United States Senate in order to secure Supreme Court nominations and seats on the Supreme Court,” she said.

She said lying under oath during those hearings is an impeachable offense.

Arkansas governor defends abortion ban that makes no exception for rape and incest

Sunday 26 June 2022 14:38 , Alex Woodward

On NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday morning, Asa Hutchinson – the governor of Arkansas, which enacted a “trigger” law that makes abortion care illegal without Roe – defended the law, which makes no exception for rape or incest.

Asked by host Chuck Todd whether he is comfortable if a “13 year old in Arkansas is raped by a relative, that 13 year old cannot get an abortion,” the governor said he would “prefer a different outcome than that.”

“That’s not the debate today in Arkansas. It might be in the future,” he said, adding that the law currently bans abortions with only one exception – to save the life of the patient.