As protesters gathered outside the Supreme Court to register their despair, the world reacted to the historic decision to overturn abortion rights across the United States.
US President Joe Biden has declared "the health and life of women across this nation are now at risk", adding that many Americans are "frustrated and disillusioned" by the decision.
Look back on how the day's events unfolded in our blog.
Key events
- Activist warns of repercussions of abortion ruling
- Justices Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh both testified that Roe was precedent
- With the right to abortion scuppered, are birth control and same-sex relationships next?
- What steps have the states taken since the announcement?
- Can the decision now be overturned?
- Residents take to the streets in protest of the ruling
- Joe Biden says the court 'took away a constitutional right'
Live updates
By Shiloh Payne
That's all for today's blog
We're going to close the blog here, thank you for joining us today.
Until next time, you can stay up-to-date with the latest news online or on the ABC News app.
By Shiloh Payne
Protests have carried into the night
It's now just after 11pm in Washington DC and protesters are still out on the streets.
Here's how they're demonstrating.
By Shiloh Payne
California governor signs bill declaring the state a safe haven for women
Democratic leaders across the US have vowed to help women who travel to seek abortions from being pursued by authorities in states where the procedure has become outlawed after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade.
The governors of California, Washington and Oregon issued a joint “multi-state commitment” saying they'll work together to defend patients and care providers.
The liberal West Coast states anticipate an influx of people seeking abortions, especially as neighbouring conservative jurisdictions move to outlaw or greatly restrict the procedure.
California governor Gavin Newsom has signed a bill to protect women seeking abortion.
I want to take this moment and sign legislation to push back against those Republican state legislators and governors that seek to move forward with civil actions against people that wish to travel to the state of California seeking their reproductive rights and reproductive freedoms," he said.
By Shiloh Payne
Here's how celebrities are reacting to the abortion ruling
Several celebrities including Taylor Swift, Bette Midler and Stephen King reacted after the Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe v Wade.
Here's what they had to say.
Viola Davis said she was "gutted".
Stephen King posted several times about the decision.
Bette Midler described the Supreme Court as "tone deaf".
Mark Ruffalo said: "we are going to have to fight" for America's founding rights.
Taylor Swift says she is "aboslutely terrified" by the opinion.
By Shiloh Payne
Legal expert spells out the overturning of Roe v Wade
A United States legal expert explains the "historic overturning" will put abortion access in the hands of state legislatures, adding the ruling could come into play in the midterm elections.
"This ruling means that there is no constitutional protection for the right to an abortion and it is up to each individual state to decide how it wants to approach the right to access abortions," Naomi Cahn, University of Virginia Law School said.
"We will see what happens in the upcoming midterm elections, this becomes a state by state issue with state legislatures now responsible for deciding on access to abortions in their states."
By Shiloh Payne
How sports are reacting to US Supreme Court's abortion ruling
The Women's National Basketball Association, the National Women's Soccer League, and sporting icons such as Megan Rapinoe, LeBron James, and Billie Jean King have spoken out against the United States Supreme Court's decision to overturn federal abortion rights.
As news filtered across America, and the world, several sports leagues and athletes released statements condemning the decision.
Reaction condemning the court's decision was swift, with both female and male athletes taking to social media to voice their opinions.
The WNBA — America's women's professional basketball league and a competition at the forefront of social issues such as the Black Lives Matter movement — was one of the first to speak out.
By Shiloh Payne
By Lucy Sweeney
The June of doom
It's been a mighty busy week in the United States. With the countdown on to July 4, Congress and the courts have been pedal to the metal to get through their pre-summer to-do lists.
The Supreme Court has handed down a raft of other decisions this week on everything from gun laws to the right to remain silent. Meanwhile, the January 6 committee has been delving into Donald Trump's alleged scheme to force the US Justice Department to help him overturn the 2020 presidential election.
As our North America correspondent Carrington Clarke wrote earlier this week, many have been feeling a sense of impending doom.
Far from being an impartial caretaker, the Supreme Court is now more often seen as a powerful political tool to be won and wielded.
It is also the battleground for many of America's most-heated debates.
When the draft ruling overturning Roe v Wade was leaked, those for and against abortion rights quickly gathered outside the court, where barriers were erected within minutes.
The protests were rowdy but, for the most part, peaceful.
But elsewhere some have already taken their dismay in a more dangerous direction.
By Shiloh Payne
Why Shelley didn't want anyone to learn she was 'Baby Roe' from Roe v Wade
At the centre of the very public Roe v Wade legal drama, somehow hidden was not just one woman – pseudonymously known as Jane Roe – but two: Norma McCorvey, the real Jane Roe, and the daughter she gave birth to while her abortion rights case was working its way to the top of the US legal system.
Journalist Joshua Prager tells ABC RN's Sunday Extra that, for most of his life, he'd assumed "the woman who won the legal right to have an abortion, had one".
When he learnt that McCorvey gave birth to a daughter – the legal ruling was handed down after she gave birth – who was adopted by another family, he became intrigued by the question of who this person was.
"The pro-life side of things in America looked at that unknown human being as the sort of living incarnation of their argument against abortion," he says.
Prager wanted to hear her side, and learn what she thought about her biological mother's famous court case.
In investigating the story, he discovered that Norma McCorvey had other biological children and that some of them had been desperately looking for one another.
"I'm the one that brought them together," he says.
"And that was a very, very dramatic moment."
By Shiloh Payne
By Shiloh Payne
US residents are protesting across the country
It's around 9.30pm in Washington DC, where the Supreme Court is located, and protesters are still demonstrating across the country.
Here's how the protests looked throughout the day.
By Shiloh Payne
Activist warns of repercussions of abortion ruling
A veteran civil rights activist who pioneered reproductive rights has warned of the repurcussions of Friday's Supreme Court decision to end constitutional protections for abortion.
"[There's] nothing good about this decision. People's lives will be harmed. People will be harmed," said Heather Booth, who helped found the Jane Collective, a group of women who banded together in the late '60s and early '70s to offer illegal abortions to women who needed them, in the years before Roe v. Wade.
She went on to say that the Supreme Court had "manufactured a crisis for half of the country".
"For many, without those resources, without financial or community support, either will find ways to injure themselves, go underground and find illegal providers," she said.
Booth went on to call activists to push back and organize to fight the decision, citing the succedsful history of civil rights mobilization.
"When we organise, and we can change this world," she said.
By Shiloh Payne
Here's a look at abortion policies and access
Data from abortion rights advocacy research group Guttmatcher Institute shows there are eight states labelled the "most restrictive" when it comes to abortion laws and 11 who have protective measures.
There are 17 states that are considered "restrictive" while the rest have at least some protections or restrictions on abortions.
By Shiloh Payne
Billie Eilish speaks out about 'dark day' at Glastonbury
Billie Eilish said it was a "dark day" for American women when she made history by becoming the youngest-ever solo performer on Glastonbury's Pyramid stage on Friday night.
The 20-year-old made the comment midway through a crowd-pleasing set, Reuters reports.
Without directly referencing the Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v Wade, Eilish said: "Today us a really dark day for women in the US."
"I'm just going to say that, because I can't bear to think about it anymore in this moment."
She then dedicated "Your Power", a song about abusing power, to the subject.
By Shiloh Payne
By Shiloh Payne
The Supreme Court's opinion raises a 'new pro-life generation'
Wendy Francis, the Australian Christian Lobby's national director for politics, says overturning Roe v Wade is ushering in a new pro-life era.
"With the first photo of a wanted baby now an ultrasound image shared online, there is a clearer understanding of the humanity of the unborn. This has raised up a new, young, prolife generation," Ms Francis says.
Ms Francis raised two areas to the federal parliament that it "should immediately look into": the birth of viable babies being born alive and the practice of sex-selection.
"It is our hope that this historical decision will impact Australian law in these ways."
By Lucy Sweeney
By Lucy Sweeney
Protests are kicking off in other US cities too
It's not just outside the Supreme Court in Washington DC. Here are some snaps from other cities around the US where supporters of abortion rights are taking to the streets in response to today's ruling.
By Shiloh Payne
US companies are offering abortion travel benefits
Companies — including Walt Disney Co and Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc — say they will cover employees' expenses if they have to travel for abortion services after the ruling came out, Reuters is reporting.
Disney told employees on Friday that it remains committed to providing comprehensive access to quality healthcare, including for abortions, according to a Disney spokesperson.
Meta will reimburse travel expenses for employees seeking out-of-state reproductive care, but the company was also "assessing how best to do so given the legal complexities involved", according to a spokesperson.
Dick's Sporting Goods chief executive Lauren Hobart said on LinkedIn that the company would pay up to $US4,000 in travel for employees or their family members and a support person if abortion was not available nearby.
Alaska Air Group, parent of Alaska Airlines, said on Friday it is "reimbursing travel for certain medical procedures and treatments if they are not available where you live. Today's Supreme Court decision does not change that."
Other companies offering the benefit include Johnson & Johnson, online dating sites OkCupid and Bumble Inc , Netflix Inc and JPMorgan Chase & Co, the nation's largest bank.
A draft of the Supreme Court ruling on abortion was leaked in May. At that time, many other companies, including online review site Yelp, Microsoft Corp and Tesla said they would help cover the cost of travel for employees seeking reproductive services.
Apple repeated that it supported employees making their own decisions on reproductive health and that its healthcare covered travel for services unavailable nearby.
However, companies that offer reimbursements for abortion-related travel could be vulnerable to lawsuits by anti-abortion groups and Republican-led states, and even potential criminal penalties.
By Lucy Sweeney
Justices Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh both testified that Roe was precedent
Democratic senator Joe Manchin, who has frequently opposed abortion rights, has criticised two of the Supreme Court justices who concurred with today's decision to overturn Roe v Wade.
Senator Manchin says he trusted both Justice Neil Gorsuch and Justice Brett Kavanaugh when they testified in their confirmation hearings that they believed Roe v Wade was "precedent".
Brett Kavanaugh told the Senate in 2018 that Roe v Wade was "important precedent of the Supreme Court that has been reaffirmed many times", while Neil Gorsuch in 2017 said "a good judge will consider it as precedent of the US Supreme Court".
Both justices were nominated to the court by former Republican president Donald Trump. Senator Manchin was one of three Democrats to vote to confirm Justice Gorsuch and the only Democrat who voted to confirm Justice Kavanaugh.
