Boris Johnson, British Prime Minister has called on a US Supreme Court ruling ending the federal right to abortion “a big step backwards”.
Johnson, in Kigali for a Commonwealth heads of government meeting said the court’s rulings have “massive impacts on people’s thinking around the world”.
“I think it’s a big step backwards. I’ve always believed in a woman’s right to choose and I stick to that view, and that’s why the UK has the laws that it does.”
The US Supreme Court on Friday ended the right to abortion in a seismic ruling that shreds half a century of constitutional protections on one of the most divisive and bitterly fought issues in American political life.
The conservative-dominated court overturned the landmark 1973 “Roe v Wade” decision that enshrined a woman’s right to an abortion, saying that individual states can now permit or restrict the procedure themselves.
“The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives,” the court said.