According to news website Politico, the US supreme court has voted to strike down Roe v. Wade – the key 1973 decision that gave women a broad right to abortion.
Roe currently protects, within limits, a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy. Without it, states would be free to make their own abortion laws. A large number of states across the south and midwest have laws already in place which would make abortion illegal almost immediately should Roe be overturned, which now looks extremely likely. Other states, such as New York, have laws which would protect access to abortion even in the absence of Roe.
The situation would then look much like it did in the early 1970s, with a patchwork of state laws across the country, each with different regulations and requirements. Women would be able to access abortion in some states and face criminal sanction for it in others.
