What happens if America’s Supreme Court overturns women’s right to abortion

Editor’s note: On June 24th a 5-4 majority on the Supreme Court voted to overrule the constitutional right to an abortion, which had been guaranteed since 1973 in Roe v Wade.

A WOMAN IN Missouri who decides to end her pregnancy has a choice, of sorts. She can go to the state’s last remaining abortion clinic, in St Louis, where state law dictates she must be told that “the life of each human being begins at conception” and warned of the psychological damage the termination could cause. She must then wait 72 hours before returning. Or she can travel 15 miles (24km) east, across the Mississippi River, to a larger clinic in Fairview Heights, Illinois, where the doctor (it may even be the same one) can speak to her patient as she thinks best. The abortion can be done that day.