Rival camps dig in for fight after US abortion ruling

US: Elected leaders across the US political divide rallied Sunday (June 27) for a long fight ahead on abortion – state by state and in Congress – with total bans in force or expected soon in half of the vast country.

Two days after the United States Supreme Court scrapped half-century constitutional protections for the procedure, abortion rights defenders kept up their mobilisation, with a candlelight vigil planned outside the high court in Washington Sunday night.

Dozens of arrests and some instances of vandalism were reported during a weekend of mostly peaceful protests that turned disorderly in places – as the country grapples with a new level of division: Between states where abortion is or will soon be illegal, and those that still allow it. And Democratic Governors in Michigan and Wisconsin have stepped in to try to keep abortion legal in their Midwestern states.

US President Joe Biden has condemned the Supreme Court’s ruling as a “tragic error” – but with power now resting with often anti-abortion state legislatures, he has also acknowledged his hands are largely tied.

A CBS poll released Sunday showed that a solid majority – 59 per cent – of Americans and 67 per cent of women disapproved of the Supreme Court’s ruling.

– THE STRAITS TIMES