This AMERICAN LIFE

A woman’s right to decide what happens to her own body has just taken a massive dive in modern America. The Weekly investigates the Roe v. Wade debate.

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Even though the ruling was widely anticipated, it came with the shock of a punch to the gut and, for many, the wrench of a family bereavement. Roe v.Wade, the Supreme Court ruling that for almost 50 years had guaranteed American women’s right to terminate a pregnancy, had been overturned. In an instant, millions of American women had control of what happens to their own bodies taken away from them. And while abortion has not been made illegal across America; individual states will now decide whether women can terminate their pregnancies. And about half the US states will legislate or already have to deny them that right.

When the ruling was handed down in June, protesters immediately converged on the Supreme Court in Washington, the temple-like building which has become the legal battlefield for so many of America’s most contentious issues. Angry pro-choice protesters held aloft placards reading ‘Abortion is Healthcare’ and ‘My Body My Choice’. “This is a nightmare,” shouted one of the protesters. “I’m 21 and I’m terrified.” Others chanted: “Keep abortion safe and legal.”

Anti-abortion campaigners, assembling just metres away, held a victory celebration. They equate abortion with the murder of unborn children. For them, overturning Roe was the answer to a prayer. One group of young evangelical Christians came dressed in bright red T-shirts with the slogan: ‘The pro-life generation.’ They held aloft banners: ‘The future is anti-abortion’. ‘Roe is dead’.