Supreme Court has made 'terrible decisions' - Biden

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Shortly after the Supreme Court decision on Friday, President Biden urged pro-choice Americans to head to the polls and elect politicians who support abortion rights.

Democrats will seek to use the abortion issue to energise their base, and for some voters, ensuring Democrats control Congress could take on fresh urgency.

Biden is also likely to come under increasing pressure to reform the Supreme Court.

Individual states, including Minnesota, Washington, Oregon, and California, and cities like New York, have vowed to offer reproductive care to women living in states where abortion is banned.

Campaigners have also been putting in place efforts to ensure women travelling from out-of-state have access to support - and the financial funds - needed to access abortion services.

At a state level, new laws restricting abortion are already being challenged.

Planned Parenthood in Utah filed a lawsuit on Saturday challenging the constitutionality of the state’s abortion ban.

And earlier this month, a synagogue in Florida sued the state, arguing a law that will ban most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy as of 1 July, violates religious freedoms.

Pro-choice campaigners are also seeking to improve access to abortion medication, especially in states where abortion is heavily restricted.

Medication was used in just over 50% of abortions in the US in 2020, according to data from the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights.

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In Margaret Atwood's 1985 novel The Handmaid's Tale - now a hit TV series - she imagined a fictional American dystopia. Writing in The Atlantic, she says the US Supreme Court has brought Gilead to life.

"In the fictional theocracy of Gilead, women had very few rights, as in 17th Century New England. The Bible was cherry-picked, with the cherries being interpreted literally.

Although I eventually completed this novel and called it The Handmaid’s Tale, I stopped writing it several times, because I considered it too far-fetched. Silly me.

The Alito opinion purports to be based on America’s Constitution. But it relies on English jurisprudence from the 17th Century, a time when a belief in witchcraft caused the death of many innocent people.

If Justice Alito wants you to be governed by the laws of the 17th Century, you should take a close look at that century. Is that when you want to live?"

Read Atwood's piece here

Kathleen McClellan from Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, told the BBC she thinks yesterday's ruling is a step forward for America.

"Yesterday I was overjoyed to hear the news that Roe had been overturned. My employer called me as soon as he heard about it and he was extremely grateful also. I went to Mass on my lunch break and the priest was so moved by the Supreme Court decision that he broke into tears during his homily.

"Legislation protecting human life in every stage of development and ability is another humane goal that Americans can now freely enact state by state. My state of Louisiana has chosen to do that and I'm proud of our governor and legislators."

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Mark StoryCopyright: Mark Story

For Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, this weekend is one of celebration.

"It's a great day for the American people," she said. "Roe v Wade is now behind us."

Fitch can take some personal credit for the ruling. Under her direction, her state asked the Supreme Court to uphold Mississippi's abortion ban and slash Roe v Wade in the process.

The case, according to Fitch, was about "women's empowerment".

Abortion, she said, offered women a false choice - motherhood or career, not both.

"Fifty years ago, for professional women, they wanted you to make a choice. Now you don't have to," she said last year. "You have the option in life to really achieve your dreams, your goals, and you can have those beautiful children as well."

Read more:The woman who helped topple Roe

Friday's Supreme Court decision was decades in the making, and a major victory for the anti-abortion campaigners in the United States.

So after overturning the 50-year-old Roe v Wade - the landmark US ruling that made abortion a constitutional right - what comes next for the movement?

Many see overturning Roe v Wade as just the beginning of its work.

Some of the battle will now move to the state level, since the ruling means individual states are free to set their own rules.

Carol Tobias, President of National Right to Life, has said overturning Roe means campaigners will now move to “encourage as many states as possible to ban abortion to whatever extent they can”.

Others, including the Susan B Anthony List, which supports anti-abortion politicians, have called on increasing efforts to financially support families and new mothers.

In the Atlantic, conservative Christian and commentator David French points to policies like Senator Mitt Romney’s proposed Family Security Act, which would offer monthly financial assistance to expecting mothers and families with children.

“The Romney plan isn’t the answer to child poverty and family financial insecurity, but it is an answer, and its concrete financial support for mothers and children would be a tangible statement of our nation’s moral commitment to young families,” he writes.

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US footballer Megan Rapinoe has spoken emotionally about the impact the Roe v Wade overturning will have on her, her teammates and others.

At a team news conference in Denver, Colorado, Rapinoe, one of the stars of the US women's national team, said she wanted to talk about football, but the anti-abortion ruling took precedence.

Catherine Lewis, 56, from North Carolina, says she thinks that Friday’s Supreme Court decision was “correct from a constitutional perspective”.

“I am always for supporting state's rights and this merely puts the decision back into the individual state's hands to decide what's best for their citizens,” she tells the BBC.

Lewis says she is opposed to abortion “because I am a firm believer in the sanctity of life”.

“In fact, I just wrote my friend's memoir where she explains that she was glad that her parents chose life for her rather than abortion so that she could live."

One part of her message to those who oppose her view would be to “challenge them to think outside their political talking points and really dive into the issue”.

“Look at it from a legal perspective and understand what Scotus did by sending the decision back to the states,” she says.

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JP Morgan, Levi Strauss and Microsoft are among the major US corporations rushing to protect their employees' access to abortion, covering expenses for those who travel for the procedure.

Yesterday's ruling - and the abortion bans now expected in at least 13 states - means that millions of US women will have to drive hundreds of miles to get to the nearest clinic.

"We recognise the impact of the ruling and that we remain committed to providing comprehensive access to quality and affordable care for all of our employees, cast members and their families, including family planning and reproductive care, no matter where they live," Disney said in a statement.

The pro-choice stance taken by so many US companies, including Apple, Tesla, Yelp, Citigroup, Netflix and Lyft, has already generated some backlash from Republican lawmakers, who have threatened to cancel contracts with companies offering support for abortion.

In Texas, a state lawmaker has introduced a bill that would prevent companies from doing business with local governments in the state if they provide abortion-related benefits to their employees.

Here's a flavour of the demonstrations and celebrations which cascaded across the US in the hours after the highest court in the US reversed the Roe v Wade ruling.

More protests have been taking place today, including outside the courthouse in Washington.

The decision, released on Friday morning, will have repercussions in the US for years to come.

With the ruling, the conservative-majority court effectively ended the constitutional right to an abortion.

Five justices were in favour: Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote a separate opinion saying that he supported an abortion law in Mississippi at the centre of the case but he would not have overturned Roe v Wade.

The three other justices disagreed with the majority - Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kaga.

Here are some key passages from the landmark ruling:

Quote Message: "Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division" from Samuel Alito, writing for the majority Supreme Court justice

"Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division"

Quote Message: "It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives" from Samuel Alito, writing for the majority Supreme Court justice

"It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives"

Quote Message: “The majority would allow States to ban abortion from conception onward because it does not think forced childbirth at all implicates a woman’s rights to equality and freedom. Today’s Court, that is, does not think there is anything of constitutional significance attached to a woman’s control of her body and the path of her life” from Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, in the dissent Supreme Court justices

“The majority would allow States to ban abortion from conception onward because it does not think forced childbirth at all implicates a woman’s rights to equality and freedom. Today’s Court, that is, does not think there is anything of constitutional significance attached to a woman’s control of her body and the path of her life”

Quote Message: “Whatever the exact scope of the coming laws, one result of today’s decision is certain: the curtailment of women’s rights, and of their status as free and equal citizens” from Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, in the dissent Supreme Court justices

“Whatever the exact scope of the coming laws, one result of today’s decision is certain: the curtailment of women’s rights, and of their status as free and equal citizens”

Pro-choice protester Guido Reichstadter began climbing the huge Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge on Friday morning and remains there more than 24 hours later.

In a post on Twitter, he said he would rather be anywhere else but he feels strongly for abortion rights.

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President Biden will come under increasing pressure from Democrats to reform - especially to expand - the highest court in the US in the wake of Friday's historic abortion decision.

Biden launched a commission in April 2021 to explore possible reforms, but it avoided taking a position in its final report on so-called "court packing" by adding justices to the current nine on the bench - though it said it there was no legal obstacle in doing so.

Adding more justices to the court could shift the ideological balance of the bench, which currently leans conservative.

On Saturday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre threw cold water on the possibility.

She told journalists travelling with the president to a G7 meeting in Europe that expanding the court "is something that the president does not agree with".

"That is not something that he wants to do."

She said there was "no final decision" she could share on any other proposed reforms, which include possible term limits for justices.

BBCCopyright: BBC

Pro-choice activists are surrounding the few people who are anti-abortion here by the courthouse in Washington DC.

One man with a sign “Jesus Saves” shouts that he loves everybody as a group of women gather around him shouting “My body, my choice!”.

He eventually moves away after a few minutes of confrontation and chanting at each other.

Police are still stood in front of the heavily secured Supreme Court building.

If you're just joining us, or would like a refresher on what's been going on today - here are some of the day's main headlines so far on the day after the US Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion.

Biden's criticism continues - President Joe Biden, who yesterday described the ruling as a "tragic error", has spoken out again. After signing a landmark gun control bill into law - the first in decades, but which has been overshadowed by the abortion verdict - Biden was asked whether the court is a broken institution, and replied: "I think the Supreme Court has made some terrible decisions."

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

Demonstrations continue - Abortion-rights supporters have been protesting across the US again, with events planned around the nation over the weekend. Crowds have gathered again outside the Supreme Court building in Washington DC - but pro-life activists are there too. Friday's protests were largely peaceful, though 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.

Global reaction continues - As well as protests in the US, there have been demonstrations in major cities around the world, while international leaders such as Canada's Justin Trudeau, French President Emmanual Macron and New Zealand's Jacinda Ardern have voiced their dismay over the ruling. And female US celebrities from a variety of sectors have spoken of their anger or sadness, including singer Bille Eilish, tennis star Coco Gauff and US soccer icon Megan Rapinoe.

Actual changes have started - Several states have already moved to make abortion illegal, with new laws immediately imposed in Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Utah. Abortion clinics have been closing and a senator in Oklahoma told the BBC anyone carrying out an abortion there now could face five years in jail.

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Teenage US tennis star Coco Gauff says she is disappointed by the US Supreme Court's decision, in a pre-Wimbledon news conference.

The 18-year-old has previously used her platform to comment on social issues, and wrote "Peace - end gun violence" on a camera lens after she won the semi-final at the French Open last month.

"Obviously I feel bad for future women and women now, but I also feel bad for those who protested for this, I don't even know how many years ago, but protested for this (and) are alive to see that decision to be reversed," Reuters quotes Gauff as saying.

She tells reporters in London she feels like "we're almost going backwards" and says she's concerned it could lead to the reversal of other things people worked hard to achieve in the past.

"I still want to encourage people to use their voice and not feel too discouraged about this because we can definitely make a change, and hopefully change will happen," Gauff adds.

It's been 50 years since the legality of abortion was determined by votes, so the electoral implications of returning this power to the states are difficult to predict.

When abortion rights were protected by Supreme Court precedent, public opinion surveys generally indicated that it was conservatives who were more motivated to vote based on the issue. Democrats, with the status quo on their side, were less inclined to make abortion a top issue.

But recent polls suggest that calculus may change now that Roe is gone. According to a CBS News survey in May, 40% of Democrats said they would be more likely to vote if Roe v Wade were overturned, compared to only 17% of Republicans.

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If Democrats are able to use the abortion issue to energise their base, it could give their hopes of electoral success new life despite a president struggling with low popularity and a challenging economic climate.

Control of the US Congress, which could pass legislation protecting or banning abortion nationally, is also up for grabs. Democrats have a slim majority in the House of Representatives and are tied 50-50 in the US Senate, maintaining control only through Vice-President Kamala Harris' tie-breaking vote.

Even the slightest shifts in electoral winds in the months before November's votes could have dramatic implications for abortion rights across the US.