The disunited states

A leaked supreme court draft that could signal the overturning of the Roe v Wade ruling on abortion rights has shaken America to its core. Can it survive the fallout?

- David Smith

YOU PUT YOUR BABIES IN THE WOMB, you will be held accountable!” yelled Steve Corson, tall, bearded and jabbing a finger at women who chanted back: “My body, my choice!”

Corson, 65, from Fredonia, Arizona, took a deep breath and blew into a shofar. Then Nathan Darnell, wearing a “Jesus Christ is king” cap and holding up a cross, grabbed a megaphone. “You guys are demon-possessed!” declared the 19-year-old from Haymarket, Virginia. “Every child has a right to life.” Suddenly, Darnell was surrounded by abortion rights protesters brandishing placards. He kept talking. “You guys are evil. The downfall of America is because of every one of you.”

The national day of prayer last Thursday was anything but a solemn occasion outside the supreme court in Washington, where hours earlier an unscalable black fence had been erected, reminiscent of the one that surrounded the US Capitol after the 6 January insurrection.

The fury was unleashed by a leaked draft opinion showing the nation’s highest court provisionally voted to overturn Roe v Wade, the 1973 ruling that effectively legalised abortion. It was a political earthquake revealing American women to be perilously close to losing a fundamental right.

It was also a milestone in America’s journey from United States to divided states. The likely demise of Roe v Wade could drive the biggest wedge yet between what appear to be two irreconcilable nations coexisting under one flag.

Liberal states would become sanctuaries for women seeking abortions and saturated with providers, conservative states would turn into deserts that ban the procedure and criminalise doctors who provide it. Some wonder if the country’s social fabric, frayed by four years of Donald Trump’s presidency, can survive.