Biden warns of lives in danger as supreme court overturns Roe v Wade

The supreme court has ruled there is no constitutional right to abortion in the US, upending a precedent set nearly 50 years ago in the landmark Roe v Wade case - a rare reversal of long-settled law that will fracture the foundations of modern reproductive rights in America.

- Jessica Glenza

The US president, Joe Biden, warned last night that women's lives had been put in danger by the ruling. "The court has done what it has never done before: expressly take away a constitutional right that is so fundamental to so many Americans," Biden said in a speech from the White House. "It's a sad day for the court and for the country." The court's ruling came in the pivotal case Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization, in which the last abortion clinic in Mississippi opposed the state's efforts to ban abortion after 15 weeks and overturn Roe in the process.

"We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled," said the majority opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito and joined by four other conservative justices.

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

Separately, chief justice John Roberts said he would have upheld Mississippi's law, but not overruled Roe altogether.