Police use tear gas as violence erupts in US after abortion ruling
25 states to ban terminations after Supreme Court overturns historic Roe vs Wade judgment
VIOLENT protests erupted across America last night as a backlash grew against the US Supreme Court’s decision to overthrow the historic law giving every woman the right to an abortion.
With at least half of America’s 50 states now set to stop or severely restrict abortion – with 13 of them imposing an immediate ban – thousands of protesters took to the streets in cities including Los Angeles, New York, Washington DC, Boston and Chicago.
Police fired tear gas at an angry crowd outside Arizona’s state Capitol building, and a man was arrested in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, after driving a pick-up truck into pro-choice protesters, injuring three women.
Singer Billie Eilish blasted the ruling on the main stage at Glastonbury on Friday, calling it ‘a dark day for women in America’, while former First Lady Michelle Obama said she was ‘heartbroken’.
And last night, US singer and actress Olivia Rodrigo brought Lily Allen out as a special guest during her Glastonbury performance to sing her track “F*** you” as a message to the Supreme Court.
Miss Rodrigo told revellers: ‘This is my first Glastonbury and I’m sharing this stage with Lily – this is
‘Many women are going to die because of this’
the biggest dream come true ever. But I’m also equally as heartbroken about what happened in America yesterday. So many girls and women are going to die because of this. I want to dedicate this next song to the five members of the Supreme Court who don’t give a s*** about freedom.’
US President Joe Biden said the Supreme Court ‘has made some terrible decisions’ and called the ruling ‘a tragic error’. Prime Minister Boris Johnson described it as ‘a big step backwards’.
The Supreme Court overturned Roe vs Wade, landmark legislation passed in 1973 that permitted abortions until the 24th week of pregnancy. The conservative-led panel of nine judges includes three justices who were appointed by Donald Trump when he was president.
In Los Angeles, where abortion remains legal, several clinics are offering ‘abortcations’ – free or heavily subsided treatment for women from states like Texas were terminations are now outlawed.
One pro-abortion doctor told the TV channel NBC: ‘This terrible ruling will affect poor women the worst. You are going to see a rise in clinics offering abortion vacations in states like California.’
However, women in some states could now be prosecuted if they travel to another state for treatment, while doctors may be jailed for prescribing the morning-after pill, even in cases of rape or incest.
The ruling to give individual states control over abortion policy also sent fear through the LGBTQ community after Justice Clarence Thomas said the Supreme Court should now ‘reconsider’ making gay marriage legal.
Dozens of protesters last night gathered outside his home.
Law professor David Cohen of Drexel University in Philadelphia said: ‘It’s likely prosecutors will go after people that help women get an abortion – the person who drives them, the doctor who sees them.’
Texas and Oklahoma immediately passed abortion laws allowing private citizens to sue people who perform abortions and those who aid them. There are even reports that some states may offer reward money to citizens for reporting ‘illegal’ abortions.
‘It’s like they are putting a bounty on the head of women and teenage girls when they are at their most vulnerable,’ said one woman at a rally in Los Angeles.
Social media erupted in protest against the ban with the hashtag #Gilead trending – a reference to the dystopian patriarchal republic featured in Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale.
Reducing abortion access will hit low-income families the most, according to US sexual healthcare charity Planned Parenthood. The organisation claimed that the ban could result in an extra 60,000 births a year.
Roe vs Wade began with Norma McCorvey, 22, being denied an abortion by Dallas County District Attorney Henry Wade. Her lawyers fought all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled abortion would be legal throughout the US.
But on Friday, Justice Samuel Alito said the ruling ‘deepened division’, adding: ‘The inescapable conclusion is that a right to abortion is not deeply rooted in the nation’s history and tradition.’
A Reuters/Ipsos poll last month found that 71 per cent of Americans, including majorities of both Democrats and Republicans, believed decisions about terminating a pregnancy should be left to a woman and her doctor, rather than regulated by the government.