One week has passed since the United States supreme court eliminated the nation’s constitutional right to abortion, overturning a 50-year-old ruling that legalised the procedure across the country.
In the days that followed, thousands of protesters gathered on the streets of Washington DC to denounce the overturning of the half-century-old precedent that recognised women’s constitutional right to abortion. Meanwhile, anti-abortion supporters around the country celebrated what they saw as a sign of the new America they had worked for generations to achieve.
Kara Voght, political reporter with Rolling Stone magazine, spoke to crowds outside the Supreme Court in Washington DC when last week’s announcement was made.
“The scene was really unusual because these groups do not stand side by side, it’s very polarised in America,” she told the In the News podcast. “Both groups really felt like they had a lot at stake with this
“One person was telling me this was just one step in their movement because even though Roe’s been overturned, now the work is to go state by state and try to secure the end of abortion rights at the state level or the local level,” Voght told the podcast. “And for others, for those who are pro-abortion rights, this felt like a really huge failure. People were just sobbing openly, young women, older women, it really was quite the scene.”
Today, on In the News, one week on from the US supreme court ruling, what impact is the end of Roe v Wade already having on American women?
In The News is presented by Sorcha Pollak and Conor Pope and produced by Declan Conlan, Suzanne Brennan and Jennifer Ryan.
