The "chilling" decision to repeal federal abortion rights in the US will embolden anti-choice activists in the UK, the leader of the Women's Equality Party has argued.
Mandu Reid has warned pro-choice campaigners not to be complacent and to be wary of those looking to roll back women's rights in the UK.
The former London mayoral candidate, who has previously opened up about her own experience of having an abortion, has also called for changes to the way terminations are accessed in the UK.
"The news from the US is chilling, it is a clear attack on American women's rights, and comes in during a time of global backlash against women's equality," Ms Reid told the Mirror.
"It also underlines the fragility of the hard-won but incomplete abortion access we have here in the UK.
"Women here still have no legal right to access abortions, and women must seek the permission of two doctors before they can access the procedure, as I had to do a few years ago.
"It’s hard to fully comprehend the impact of this decision. We’re talking about a handful of people - mostly conservative men - making a decision that will deny tens of millions of women their reproductive rights overnight."
A US Supreme Court document leaked to Politico suggests the country's top court is poised to overturn the 1973 decision that legalised abortion nationwide.
If the court strikes down the Roe v Wade ruling, individual states would be allowed to ban abortion.
Pro-choice campaigners argue this would endanger women, inadvertently criminalise those who have miscarriages, and lead to many other negative, unintended social consequences.
In the UK an overwhelming 86% of people believe that women should have the right to an abortion, while only 5% of people argue that they shouldn't.
The topic received a rare piece of publicity last month when the Government moved to overturn pandemic policy making which approved the home use of mifepristone, the first of two pills used in early medical abortion, in England.
A Lords amendment to the Health and Care bill frustrated the administration's plans and ensured that easy, at home access would continue to be guaranteed.
"Here in the UK we must see it as a warning," Ms Reid said of the Roe v Wade news.
"We have already seen anti-choice activists emboldened, as shown by their recent attack on telemedical abortion services.
"Although things are different here and their attempts were roundly defeated, we cannot be complacent.
"It is now more urgent than ever to guarantee women’s right to access abortions in law across the UK."
In an interview in 2019 Ms Reid spoke about how she had had an abortion when she realised how difficult keeping her household running and raising a child would be.
“It is strange to me, when I reflect on it now, that neither of us could imagine a scenario where I wasn’t the sole caregiver of the child and the main breadwinner," she told the Observer.
“I crunched the numbers and realised at that point in time, I couldn’t balance being a single mother and hold on to my career aspirations.
"He was young, I couldn’t twist his arm and make him do this with me, so I had a termination. It wasn’t an easy choice.”
In the US the Republican Party has purposefully targeted anti-choice sentiment as a wedge issue over a number of years.
Crowds of people - often led by evangelical Christians - regularly gather outside abortion clinics in an attempt to deter medics and women seeking help.
In recent years those opposing women having access to legal and safe abortions have also started assembling outside UK clinics, often displaying graphic placards, filming those who go in and out and throwing holy water on the sites.
Organisations like Back Off are campaigning for legally enforceable buffer zones to be set up around abortion clinics.
"This would mean that certain activities could not take place within 150 meters of abortion clinics – including the filming of women accessing services, harassment and intimidation, stopping women in an attempt to change their mind about accessing services, and advertising dangerous and unproven medication," the group argues.
