Roe v Wade: Leeds pro choice campaigners hit out at US Supreme Court decision to repeal abortion laws

The US Supreme Court repealed Roe vs Wade, the 1969 case law that made abortion legal, last week which means states can now decide whether to ban women from terminating unwanted pregnancies.

Thirteen states including Utah, Arkansas and Kentucky have already triggered the banning of abortions now the legislation has been overturned.

Abortion clinics in at least eight US states stopped performing abortions and others began to close after the Supreme Court removed American women’s constitutional right to the procedure.

The decision has caused anger across the country and the world, with former president Barack Obama saying it attacks “the essential freedoms of millions of Americans.”

Prime Minister Boris Johnson described it as a “big step backwards and a protest took place at the weekend outside the US embassy in London, while The British Pregnancy Advisory Service the UK’s leading abortion provider, said it was “appalled."

Sister Supporter Leeds, who are lobbying Leeds City Council to create a “buffer zone” around clinics which would ban protestors from coming within a set distance of buildings.

Buffer zones already exist outside Marie Stopes clinics in Manchester and London.

Anti abortion groups have previously stood at the MSI Reproductive Choices clinic in Harehills and a 40 day long ‘prayer vigil’ outside the clinic by a Christian campaign group is planned for September.

A spokesperson for Sister Supporter Leeds said: “The overturning of #RoeVsWade is an attack on human rights and body autonomy. The worst possible outcome for people in the US, and sadly this will be encouraging for anti-choicers here in the UK too.

“Every year, tens of thousands of abortion clinic users and staff are harassed by the anti-choice lobby outside clinics all over the UK - including here in Leeds.”

It comes as a second feminist group Reclaim The Night planned an evening of support and solidarity in the city’s Victoria Gardens. Leeds City Council was contacted for comment.