Washington, June 24 (IANS) Millions of women in the US are expected to lose the legal right to abortion as the country's Supreme Court overturned a 50-year-old ruling that legalised it nationwide.
The court struck down the landmark Roe vs Wade decision, weeks after an unprecedented leaked document suggested it favoured doing so, the BBC reported on Friday.
The judgement will transform abortion rights in the US, with individual states now able to ban the procedure.
Half of the US states are expected to introduce new restrictions or bans.
Thirteen have already passed so-called trigger laws that will automatically outlaw abortion following the Supreme Court's ruling.
A number of others are likely to pass new restrictions quickly.
In total, abortion access is expected to be cut off for about 36 million women of reproductive age, according to research from Planned Parenthood, a healthcare organisation that provides abortions.
Former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin was sentenced to 22.5 years in prison for the murder of George Floyd on Friday. Floyd's death, which came as Chauvin kneeled on his neck for more than nine minutes, touched off a global reckoning about police violence against Black people.
His comments drew nationwide condemnation from human rights activists and the country’s opposition, which sought an apology. The controversial statements aired over the weekend came in an interview on Axios, a documentary news series on HBO.
Chancellor Angela Merkel says while Germany has low numbers of coronavirus infections, the “aggressive” delta variant could lead to a rise in new cases.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Rochelle Walensky says she expects the delta variant will become the dominant coronavirus strain in the United States. The delta variant, first detected in India, has become dominant in Britain.
The White House is expressing growing certainty that July 4th will serve as a breakthrough moment in the nation’s recovery. That's even though the U.S. is not expected to quite reach its goal of having 70% of adults vaccinated by the holiday.
A new analysis of blood samples from 24,000 Americans taken early last year is the latest and largest study to suggest that the new coronavirus popped up in the U.S. in December 2019 — weeks before cases were first recognized by health officials.