The United States Supreme Court has overturned Roe v Wade, the landmark 1973 decision which recognised Americans' constitutional right to abortion and legalised it nationwide, handing a momentous victory to Republicans and religious conservatives who want to limit or ban the procedure.
The court, in a 6-3 ruling, upheld a Mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks.
The majority of justices found Roe v Wade was wrongly decided because the US constitution makes no specific mention of abortion.
It will now be up to individual states to decide if abortion is legal.
A draft version of the ruling written by conservative Justice Samuel Alito indicating the court was likely to overturn Roe v Wade was leaked in May, igniting a political firestorm.
Friday's ruling authored by Justice Alito largely tracked his leaked draft.
"The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision," Justice Alito wrote in the ruling.
Roe v Wade recognised that the right to personal privacy under the US Constitution protected a woman's ability to terminate her pregnancy.
The Supreme Court in a 1992 ruling called Planned Parenthood of South-Eastern Pennsylvania v Casey reaffirmed abortion rights and prohibited laws imposing an "undue burden" on abortion access.
"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," Justice Alito added.
Barricades have been erected around the court to keep back the protesters gathered outside — after an armed man was arrested on June 8 near the home of conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
The court's ruling goes against an international trend of easing abortion laws, including in such countries as Ireland, Argentina, Mexico and Colombia where the Catholic Church continues to wield considerable influence.
'A sad day for the court and the country'
On Friday, local time, President Joe Biden said he would try to preserve access to abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, and he called on Americans to elect more Democrats who would safeguard rights up-ended by the court's decision.
"This is not over," he said from the White House on what he called "a sad day for the court and the country".
"Let's be very clear: The health and life of women across this nation are now at risk."
Mr Biden added that "the [Supreme Court] has done what it's never done before — expressly taken away a constitutional right that is so fundamental to so many Americans".
Although Mr Biden has previously expressed conflicted feelings about abortion, he delivered a forceful defence on Friday.
Noting that Republican-controlled states now had a clear path to ban abortion, even in cases of incest or rape, he said: "It just stuns me."
And he warned that other legal precedents ensuring same-sex marriage and access to birth control could also be at risk.
"This is an extreme and dangerous path this court is taking us on," he said.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the Supreme Court's ruling was "outrageous and heart-wrenching" and fulfilled the Republican Party's "dark and extreme goal of ripping away women's right to make their own reproductive health decisions".
Former US president Barack Obama slammed the decision by the Supreme Court to throw out the right to abortion in the United States on Friday, calling it an attack on "essential freedoms."
"Today, the Supreme Court not only reversed nearly 50 years of precedent, it relegated the most intensely personal decision someone can make to the whims of politicians and ideologues — attacking the essential freedoms of millions of Americans," he tweeted.
Roe v Wade 'consigned to the ash heap of history'
Former US vice president Mike Pence said the right to abortion had been "consigned to the ash heap of history" as he hailed the court's ruling.
"By returning the question of abortion to the states and the people, this Supreme Court has righted a historic wrong, and reaffirmed the right of the American people to govern themselves," said Mr Pence, a Republican potential presidential candidate and leading anti-abortion campaigner.
The leading abortion provider in the United States, Planned Parenthood, vowed it would "never stop fighting" for those in need, after the constitutional right to the procedure was overturned.
"We know you may be feeling a lot of things right now — hurt, anger, confusion. Whatever you feel is OK," the organisation tweeted.
ABC/wires
