U.S. Supreme Court overturns protections for abortion set out in Roe v. Wade

The U.S. Supreme Court has overturned the Roe v. Wade opinion that has secured constitutional protections for abortion in the U.S. for nearly 50 years.

The milestone ruling, a draft of which was leaked last month, has the potential to claw back abortion access across the country by allowing states to restrict or outright ban the procedure.

Friday's 6-3 decision delivered by Justice Samuel Alito, with all three liberal justices dissenting, reverses the historic 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. That original ruling found that a woman's decision to terminate a pregnancy was protected by the right to privacy that flows from the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which protects a citizen's right to "life, liberty and property."

"The constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision," Alito wrote.

The state could only interfere with that right, the court found, after a fetus reached the "viability" stage, around 22 to 24 weeks of pregnancy, when the fetus could be considered viable outside the womb.

The case before the court, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, centred on a Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks.

The Supreme Court's decision to overturn a lower court ruling that found, in line with the Roe v. Wade precedent, that the ban was unconstitutional does not mean abortion will be automatically outlawed across the country.

Rather, individual state legislatures will now decide how to regulate the medical procedure and to what extent they want to allow, restrict or ban it outright.

Roughly half the states in the U.S., largely in the South and Midwest, have already signalled that they will likely move quickly to ban abortion or restrict access to it to some degree.

At least 13 states have so-called trigger laws that ban or severely limit abortion and are set to come into effect virtually as soon as Roe v. Wade is overturned.

The Supreme Court decision also overturns the 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey ruling, which upheld the protection of a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy without undue burdens such as waiting periods and consent and notification requirements but allowed states to add some limitations, including in the first trimester.

"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," said Alito.

Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan issued a joint dissent.

"Whatever the exact scope of the coming laws, one result of today's decision is certain: the curtailment of women's rights, and of their status as free and equal citizens," they wrote.