The Supreme Court's conservative majority writes in the opinion release today that, first, the US Constitution "makes no express reference to a right to obtain an abortion" and that the right to an abortion "is not deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and tradition".

See the full ruling here, external

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The opinion issued today overturning Roe v Wade was the result of a ruling on a case from Mississippi, Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization.

In 2018, Mississippi voted to ban abortions after the 15-week mark, except in cases of severe foetal abnormality or if there was a major health risk to the mother.

The proposed law was challenged by the state’s only abortion facility, the Jackson Women’s Health Organization, and it was deemed unconstitutional by a federal district judge and federal appeals court.

But the state appealed to the Supreme Court, and the case centres on the concept of “foetal viability” - the question of whether a foetus can survive outside the womb or not at that stage.

Mississippi argued that viability is “not an appropriate standard for assessing the constitutionality” of abortion laws and that states should broad powers to restrict abortion at earlier stages.

In overturning Roe, the opinion does that.

Image source, .

Abortion will not immediately become illegal nationwide.

Instead, it will be up to each state to decide how much access women living there would have to abortion.

About half of the 50 US states will move to ban abortions within weeks, many immediately.

But other states will continue to provide access, not just for women in their state but for those living in states where it will be restricted.

This map shows findings by the Guttmacher Institute - a pro-choice group - on US states and their level of hostility towards abortion rights.

Image source, EPA

Today’s announcement makes official a ruling that was already expected due to a leak of the decision reported by Politico , external- a US political news site - last month.

It got hold of an“initial draft majority opinion”, which was written by one of the judges - conservative Justice Samuel Alito - and circulated inside the court.

Referring to the two landmark cases - Roe v Wade, and Planned Parenthood v Casey, he wrote:

“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled.

“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 said. “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.”

The leak was highly unusual and caused much alarm over the security and secrecy of the court - but the impact of the ruling is the greater consequence.

This will be familiar ground for those reading in the US, but for those elsewhere, here’s how US abortion law has worked up until now:

Abortion was made legal across the US in 1973, after a ruling known as Roe V Wade. Until then, abortion was only legal if it would save a woman’s life.

The case brought in a trimester system that gave women an absolute right to an abortion in the first trimester, some regulation in the second, and a state the right to prevent it in the third.

In 1992, another ruling, Planned Parenthood v Casey, established that individual states could restrict abortions even in the first trimester for non-medical reasons, but kept Roe's assertion that the right to abortion in the first trimester is upheld by the Constitution.

As a result many states now have restrictions in place. For example, some insist that young pregnant women involve their parents or a judge in their decision, while others have introduced waiting periods between the time a woman first visits an abortion clinic and the actual procedure.

A seismic day in Americapublished at 15:18 British Summer Time 24 June 2022

15:18 BST 24 June 2022

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America reporter

Image source, Getty Images

Forty-nine years after Roe v Wade, the Supreme Court has decided that women do not have a constitutionally protected right to an abortion after all. This marks both a wholesale reversal of legal precedent – something the court does only on the rarest of instances – and the culmination of nearly half a century of effort by anti-abortion activists.

This will set up political battles the likes of which the nation has arguably not seen since the days of slavery, when states were divided into two seemingly irreconcilable camps, with pitched battles in a handful of states that sit on the razor’s edge.

With today’s ruling, the legality of abortion in places like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin could be determined on an election-by-election basis.

Meanwhile, the states that have solid majorities either for or against abortion rights will set off a new round of legal battles to project influence on the national landscape, including over whether individuals can go out of state for abortions(and receive financial support for doing so) or order abortion drugs by post.

The US Congress will have a say as well, as legislators debate whether to impose nationwide abortion protections or bans.

The ultimate goal for anti-abortion activists is to make the procedure illegal across the US. This court decision is a big step in that direction, but now the fight will be as much in the ballot box as it is in the courtroom.

Welcome to our live coverage of the Supreme Court decision to overturn the nationwide right to abortion access in the US.

The top US court has struck down the landmark legal ruling from 1973 - known as Roe v Wade - which ruled that the women have a constitutional right to the procedure without excessive government interference.

The ruling does not make abortion illegal, but rather, it means each state can now determine its own rules.

Roe v Wade gave women in the US an absolute right to an abortion in the first three months of pregnancy, and limited rights in the second trimester.

But the case at the Supreme Court - called Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization - challenged this.

The ruling will affect the lives of millions of women and trigger seismic changes in US society and rock the political landscape.

Stay with us as we bring you the latest news, reactions and analysis.