- Nobel-winning physicist 'unnerved' by AI technology he helped create
- Mexico president rules out new 'war on drugs'
- Israeli defense minister postpones trip to Washington: Pentagon
- Europe skipper Donald in talks with Garcia over Ryder return
- Kenya MPs vote to impeach deputy president in historic move
- Former US coach Berhalter named Chicago Fire head coach
- New York Jets fire head coach Saleh: team
- Australia crush New Zealand in Women's T20 World Cup
- US states accuse TikTok of harming young users
- 'Evacuate now, now, now': Florida braces for next hurricane
- US Supreme Court skeptical of challenge to 'ghost guns' regulation
- Sparks fly as Orban berates EU 'elites' in parliament trip
- US finalizes rule to remove lead pipes within a decade
- Solanke hungry for second England cap after seven-year wait
- Gilded canopy restored at Vatican basilica
- Zverev scrapes through, Djokovic cruises to Shanghai Masters last 16
- Trump secretly sent Covid tests to Putin: Bob Woodward book
- Gauff answers critics: 'It's hard to win all the time'
- Neural networks, machine learning? Nobel-winning AI science explained
- China says raised 'serious concerns' with US over trade curbs
- Boeing delivers 27 MAX jets in September despite strike
- German 'Maddie' suspect could be free in 2025 after cleared of other sex crimes
- Italy seek Nations League consistency as Germany continue rebuild
- From boom to budgeting as reality bites for Saudi football
- Stock markets diverge as Hong Kong sinks, oil prices fall
- US trade gap narrowest in five months as imports slip
- Stay and 'you are going to die': Florida braces for next hurricane
- England 96-1 after Salman's century lifts Pakistan to 556
- Hollywood star Idris Elba champions African cinema in Ghana
- Djokovic rolls Cobolli to make Shanghai Masters last 16
- Milan's Hernandez receives two-game suspension after referee rant
- Geoffrey Hinton, soft-spoken godfather of AI
- Ex-Barcelona and Spain great Iniesta retires aged 40
- Duo wins Physics Nobel for 'foundational' AI breakthroughs
- German 'Maddie' suspect could be free in 2025 after cleared of separate sex crimes
- China slaps provisional tariffs on EU brandy imports
- Ex-skipper Skelton eyes Wallabies November return
- Spanish great Iniesta leaves indelible legacy after retirement
- Indian Kashmir elects first regional government in a decade
- Hong Kong stocks crash, oil prices retreat on fading China boost
- Man City accuse Premier League of 'misleading' claims after legal case
- Duo wins Physics Nobel for key breakthroughs in AI
- Agha defies England as Pakistan post 515-8 in first Test
- September second-warmest on record: EU climate monitor
- Pastor wanted by US for sex trafficking to run for Philippine senate
- Mozambican writer Mia Couto dreams future leaders set an 'example'
- German 'Maddie' suspect could be free soon after cleared of separate sex crimes
- China says to take anti-dumping measures against EU brandy imports
- German suspect in 'Maddie' case cleared in separate sex crimes trial
- Israel expands offensive against Hezbollah in south Lebanon
RBGPF | -0.46% | 60.52 | $ | |
CMSC | 0.29% | 24.641 | $ | |
SCS | -1.33% | 12.78 | $ | |
RYCEF | 1.29% | 6.97 | $ | |
NGG | 0.61% | 65.88 | $ | |
RELX | 1.27% | 46.63 | $ | |
BP | -3.5% | 32.02 | $ | |
RIO | -4.42% | 66.675 | $ | |
GSK | -1.59% | 38.026 | $ | |
BTI | 0.04% | 35.215 | $ | |
BCE | -0.03% | 33.52 | $ | |
VOD | -0.31% | 9.66 | $ | |
BCC | 0.56% | 142.06 | $ | |
AZN | 0% | 76.87 | $ | |
CMSD | 0.25% | 24.851 | $ | |
JRI | -0.15% | 13.16 | $ |
Fresh protests as new US abortion reality takes shape
Abortion rights defenders fanned out across America Saturday for a second day of protest against the Supreme Court's thunderbolt ruling, as state after conservative state moved swiftly to ban the procedure.
The deeply polarized country woke up to a new level of division: between states that will now or soon deny the right to abortion, enshrined since 1973, and those that still allow it.
After protests went late into the night, several hundreds of people thronged the streets outside the fenced-off Supreme Court again Saturday, in hot summer weather, carrying signs that read "War on women, who's next?" and "No uterus, No opinion."
"What happened yesterday is indescribable and disgusting," said Mia Stagner, 19, a political science major in college. "Being forced to be a mother is not something any woman should have to do."
Twin demonstrations were also getting under way in Los Angeles -- one headed to city hall and the other to the federal courthouse -- with dozens of smaller rallies planned from coast to coast.
At least eight right-leaning states imposed immediate bans on abortion -- with a similar number to follow suit in coming weeks -- after the Supreme Court eliminated 50-year-old constitutional protections for the procedure, drawing criticism from some of America's closest allies around the world.
Fueling the mobilization, many now fear that the Supreme Court, with a clear conservative majority made possible by Donald Trump, might next set its sights on rights like same-sex marriage and contraception.
President Joe Biden -- who has likewise voiced concerns the court might not stop at abortion -- spoke out again Saturday against its "shocking decision."
"I know how painful and devastating the decision is for so many Americans," said the president, who has urged Congress to restore abortion protections as federal law, and vowed the issue would be on the ballot in November's midterm elections.
Women in states that severely restrict abortion or outlaw it altogether will either have to continue with their pregnancy, undergo a clandestine abortion, obtain abortion pills, or travel to another state where it remains legal.
"We are going to see some nightmare scenarios, sadly," Biden's spokeswoman Karine Jean Pierre told reporters on Air Force One, as the president headed to Europe for Group of Seven and NATO summits.
"That is not hypothetical," she said.
- 'Women died getting abortions' -
Friday's demonstrations mostly passed off without incident -- although police fired tear gas on protesters in Phoenix, Arizona and in the Iowa city of Cedar Rapids a pickup truck drove through a group of protesters, running over a woman's foot.
In Washington on Saturday the scene was once again mostly peaceful -- barring the odd shouting match between abortion rights advocates and opponents.
Carolyn Keller, 57, who traveled all the way from New Jersey, said she was enraged by the ruling, warning: "They came after women. They will come after the LGBT community and contraception."
But counter-protesters like Savannah Craven stood firm.
"It's not a personal choice to have an abortion, it involves two people and unfortunately that choice ends in the ending of someone's life," she told AFP.
As protesters like Craven made clear, while Friday's ruling represents a victory in the religious right's struggle against abortion, the movement's ultimate goal is a nationwide ban.
That goal is now within sight in about two dozen states which are now expected to severely restrict or outright ban and criminalize abortions.
Missouri was first to ban the procedure on Friday, making no exception for rape or incest, joined as of Saturday morning by at least seven other states -- Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Utah.
In its ruling, the Supreme Court tossed out the argument in Roe v. Wade that women had the right to abortion based on the constitutional right to privacy with regard to their own bodies.
Women in those states will either have to continue with their pregnancy, undergo a clandestine abortion, obtain abortion pills, or travel to another state where it remains legal.
Several Democratic-ruled states, anticipating an influx of patients, have already taken steps to facilitate abortion and three of them -- California, Oregon and Washington -- issued a joint pledge to defend access in the wake of the court's decision.
M.A.Colin--AMWN