US supreme court to announce latest rulings, with Roe v Wade decision looming – live

Conservative groups are cheering the supreme court’s decision overturning Roe v Wade as the successful culmination of decades of work to restrict abortion access.

Jeanne Mancini, president of March for Life, put it:

For nearly fifty years, the Supreme Court has imposed an unpopular and extreme abortion policy on our nation, but as the annual March for Life gives witness to, Roe’s allowance of abortion-on-demand, up-until-birth has never represented where most Americans stand on life! Today, the ability to determine whether and when to limit abortion was returned to the American people who have every right to enact laws like Mississippi’s which protect mothers and unborn babies after 15 weeks – when they have fully formed noses, can suck their thumb, and feel pain.

President and CEO Brooke Rollins of the America First Policy Institute noted the role of Donald Trump, who appointed three of the conservative justices whose votes were crucial in the ruling:

It should also be noted that this historic day for democracy, nearly 50 years in the making, would not have been possible without the leadership and commitment to life of President Donald J. Trump. Thank you, Mr. President!

Another key player in laying the groundwork for Roe to fall was Mitch McConnell, who as top Senate Republican in 2016 stopped then-president Barack Obama from installing a justice of his choosing for a vacant seat on the supreme court. Trump ended up filling that opening with Neil Gorsuch, who voted to strike down Roe.

Here’s what McConnell had to say about the ruling:

The Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Dobbs is courageous and correct. This is an historic victory for the Constitution and for the most vulnerable in our society.

For 50 years, states have been unable to enact even modest protections for unborn children. More than 90% of Europe restricts abortion on demand after 15 weeks, but every state in America has been forced to allow it more than a month past that, after a baby can feel pain, yawn, stretch, and suck his or her thumb. Judicial activists declared that every state had to handle abortion like China and North Korea and no state could handle it like France or Germany.

Not anymore. Now the American people get their voice back.