The Republican leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, has released a statement., external

He suggests the leak of the draft ruling from the Supreme Court was "another escalation in the radical left’s ongoing campaign to bully and intimidate federal judges and substitute mob rule for the rule of law".

"This lawless action should be investigated and punished as fully as possible. The Chief Justice must get to the bottom of it and the Department of Justice must pursue criminal charges if applicable."

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is speaking on the Senate floor, describing what he calls the "dark and disturbing morning for America".

"The Supreme Court is poised to inflict the greatest restriction of rights in 50 years," the Democrat says.

"Under this decision, our children will have less rights than their parents."

Schumer then says he will introduce legislation in the Senate to codify reproductive rights. A similar effort failed early this year and would be unlikely to receive much, if any, Republican support.

Earlier, President Biden also said he would "work to pass" legislation that codified Roe v Wade - meaning national abortion rights would be law, regardless of the Supreme Court's decision.

Elizabeth Nash from the pro-choice research group, the Guttmacher Institute, has told the BBC that 26 states are certain or likely to ban abortion if Roe v Wade is overturned.

"Thirty-six million women of reproductive age will live in a state without abortion access.

"In order to access abortion care people in ban states will have to travel hundreds of miles, incur substantial costs and mange complicated logistics.

"It will take some time for the dust to settle after the decision, but large swathes of the country, including virtually the entire middle and the south, will not have abortion clinics."

As we reported earlier, protesters and supporters immediately gathered outside the Supreme Court last night after the draft ruling was leaked.

Things are slightly quieter this morning - but crowds are building.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

A seismic shock to the US political systempublished at 14:59 British Summer Time 3 May 2022

14:59 BST 3 May 2022

Sarah Smith
North America Editor

This leaked ruling has delivered a seismic shock to the American political system.

A sudden and dramatic change in the law governing one of the most contentious issues in the US, revealed in a unprecedented disclosure from the highest court in the land.

Even President Biden has weighed in - despite not knowing if this draft is genuine - saying he believes a woman’s right to choose is fundamental, and that he wants to pass a law though congress guaranteeing abortion rights.

Everyone knew that a Supreme Court ruling on abortion was coming. No one knew that the court would - potentially - completely overturn the protection of abortion rights in such a dramatic way.

Justice Samuel Alito declared the Roe vs Wade decision as "egregiously wrong from the start", ruling that it is for elected representative in each state to make their own laws on when or if abortion should be allowed.

If this is what the court announces in June, at least 22 states will immediately institute broad bans on abortion, with another four certain to follow very quickly.

Abortion will be effectively banned in more than half of the 50 states. Some will not allow exceptions in cases of rape, incest or even a threat to the mother's life.

This decision is being greeted by anti-abortion campaigners who for 50 years hardly dared to dream they could ever fully overturn Roe v Wade - and sought to limit abortion procedures in other ways.

Liberal lawmakers and campaigners are aghast at what they see as a reversal of a fundamental women’s right that had been constitutionally protected for decades.

Remember - this is a direct consequence of the Donald Trump presidency. He vowed to appoint only Supreme Court justices who wanted to end abortion rights. Three of the five justices who make up the conservative majority on the court were put there by Trump.

There are now big questions about what other rulings this court could overturn. The arguments made against Roe v Wade could also be applied to other landmark decisions, like the right to equal marriage.

And there is widespread speculation about the impact this ruling could have on wider US politics. Will it galvanise liberal votes to tun out in the mid-term elections later this year and in the next presidential election in 2024?

The leak is still a only draft opinion. It could change before the final ruling is announced.

But it is worth noting that Justice Samuel Alito says that the court cannot let its decisions be affected by concern about public reaction. The outcry over this leak seems unlikely to change his mind or the minds of the other justices who are planning to vote with him.

Image source, Getty Images

Texas Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican, has joined a growing chorus of conservatives celebrating the "massive victory for life".

The decision will "save the lives of millions of innocent babies," he wrote.

But Cruz also issued a rebuke of the person responsible for leaking the draft opinion, calling it a " shocking breach of trust".

Image source, Getty Images

President Joe Biden has released his first statement following the report:

"We do not know whether this draft is genuine, or whether it reflects the final decision of the Court. With that critical caveat, I want to be clear on three points about the cases before the Supreme Court.

"First, my administration argued strongly before the Court in defense of Roe v. Wade. We said that Roe is based on "a long line of precedent recognizing 'the Fourteenth Amendment’s concept of personal liberty’… against government interference with intensely personal decisions."

"I believe that a woman’s right to choose is fundamental, Roe has been the law of the land for almost fifty years, and basic fairness and the stability of our law demand that it not be overturned.

"Second, shortly after the enactment of Texas law SB 8 and other laws restricting women’s reproductive rights, I directed my Gender Policy Council and White House Counsel’s Office to prepare options for an administration response to the continued attack on abortion and reproductive rights, under a variety of possible outcomes in the cases pending before the Supreme Court.

"We will be ready when any ruling is issued.

"Third, if the court does overturn Roe, it will fall on our nation’s elected officials at all levels of government to protect a woman’s right to choose. And it will fall on voters to elect pro-choice officials this November.

" At the federal level, we will need more pro-choice Senators and a pro-choice majority in the House to adopt legislation that codifies Roe, which I will work to pass and sign into law."

Image source, Getty Images

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has described the possible overturning of Roe as "not surprising" but "outrageous".

"This decision is a direct assault on the dignity, rights, & lives of women, not to mention decades of settled law," the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee wrote.

"It will kill and subjugate women even as a vast majority of Americans think abortion should be legal. What an utter disgrace."

As we said earlier, it's important to remember the draft ruling is not final, and could changed before the decision is due in June or July.

Image source, Getty Images

Students for Life Action, one of the country’s largest anti-abortion groups, has celebrated on Twitter, saying that ending the "disastrous Roe v Wade decision is the RIGHT thing to do".

"Remember when we said it was time to reverse Roe and then ban all abortion? Oh yeah, that was today," the group wrote in another tweet.

"Roe v Wade has had a space reserved on the ash heap of history since the moment it was decided."

Image source, Getty Images

Top Democrats - Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer - called the possible overturning of Roe v Wade as an "abomination, one of the worst and most damaging decisions in modern history".

"Several of these conservative justices, who are in no way accountable to the American people, have lied to the US Senate, ripped up the constitution and defiled both precedent and the Supreme Court’s reputation," Schumer and Pelosi - a devout Catholic - said in a statement.

“The party of Lincoln and Eisenhower has now completely devolved into the party of Trump," they wrote.

Millions of American women stand to lose access to abortion if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v Wade, allowing states to set their own abortion rules.

But while Roe v Wade protects the constitutional right of all women in the US, its absence would not be felt equally among them.

“The typical abortion patient is in their twenties, doesn’t have a lot of money and has one or more children,” said Rachel Jones, a principal investigator at the Guttmacher Institute - a research group in favour of abortion - told the BBC.

“These are the groups that are going to be the most impacted when restrictions are placed on abortion, or abortion is banned.”

Black and Latina women, too, are disproportionately affected by abortion bans.

The most recent demographic data suggests that 61% of abortion patients are non-white, including 28% black and 25% Hispanic.

American women have had a guaranteed right to abortion since 1973, with the Supreme Court’s ruling in the case known as Roe v Wade.

By a vote of seven to two, America's top court ruled that a set of Texas statues criminalising abortion violated a woman’s constitutional right of privacy.

Roe v Wade gave American women an absolute right to an abortion in the first “trimester” - the first three months of pregnancy

States still have the power to regulate abortions, but they are not allowed to place an “undue burden” on women seeking abortion services in this period.

Now, it looks like this landmark ruling could soon be overturned.

An unprecedented leakpublished at 13:59 British Summer Time 3 May 2022

13:59 BST 3 May 2022

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America reporter

Assume for a moment that this draft opinion becomes the law of the land.

In an instant - because of statutes already on the books and "trigger" laws designed for such an occasion - abortion would be illegal in at least 22 states.

The legality of the procedure would become a vicious political battleground in the midst of an election year.

This is the significance of what may be unfolding in the Supreme Court.

Draft opinions, however, are just that - drafts. And there have been accounts of justices shifting their views as the opinion-drafting process unfolds within the cloistered court chambers. This unprecedented leak short-circuits all that.

For most of US history, the Supreme Court has operated like Mount Olympus, handing down opinions from on high. That opacity has been shattered perhaps for good, as the leaking spreads.

What it will mean for the legitimacy of the judicial process in the US remains to be seen, but within the institution itself it seems safe to assume that all trust between the judges, a collegial group once referred to as "the brethren", is gone.

In an era when political norms have been broken like pottery in an earthquake, another big piece has fallen.

Soon after the story emerged on Monday, people for and against abortion gathered outside the Supreme Court in Washington DC.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

The leak was first reported by the Politico site on Monday night. , externalIt got hold of an “initial draft majority opinion”, which was written by Justice Samuel Alito and circulated inside the court.

“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” he writes in the document, labelled as the “Opinion of the Court".

“It is time to heed the constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”

“Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” the document says. “Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences.

"And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division.”

Again, it must be emphasised this is a draft, unfinalised opinion – it could change before the final decision, which is due in June or July.

Good morning from Washington DC. The United States is waking up to a major leak from the Supreme Court this morning – a draft ruling suggests the national right to abortion might be overturned this summer.

It’s important to stress the leak is a draft ruling – and not final. The decision is due in June or July. But if the ruling becomes final, it will overturn Roe v Wade – the 1973 ruling that legalised abortion across the US.

If Roe v Wade is overturned, states would be free to set their own abortion rules. It’s thought around half of states would then ban the procedure – 13 have already passed so-called “trigger laws”, that would ban abortion as soon as Roe v Wade is overturned.