Sandra Day O’Connor, a crucial centrist Judge, has retired from the US Supreme Court providing President George W Bush with a long waited for opportunity to push through an anti-choice judicial nominee to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court, which has had a precarious pro-choice majority (5-4), has defended the legality of abortion in the US since the groundbreaking Roe v Wade case in 1973. For the first time since Roe v Wade, anti-choice politicians are firmly in control of the White House and Congress and are in a position to appoint an anti-choice judge. Nominations have not yet been announced, but leading contenders including Michael Luttig and Samuel Alito are notorious for their ultra-conservative views.

With O’Connor’s resignation, women’s reproductive rights will now be under serious threat. If Roe v Wade is overruled, many states are likely to quickly ban abortion - tens of millions of women would face the possibility of losing their right to choose.

Already, the UK has seen the impact of an increasingly vocal and well-funded anti-choice lobby with strong links to the US. The lobby has encouraged a focus on the upper time limit in recent months in the hope of confusing public and political opinion on abortion. Any criminalisation of abortion in the US is likely to have significant reverberations across the world, including in Britain.

Anne Quesney, Director, Abortion Rights said:

‘Women’s right to choose has been hanging in the balance in the US since Bush’s election. There will be an almighty fight now to do everything possible to block his anti-choice nominees.

Internationally, the US President poses the greatest threat to women’s abortion rights. He has devastated access to abortion worldwide through the ‘Global Gag Rule’ and has repeatedly intervened to pressure the UN and WHO in line with his aggressive anti-abortion and abstinence agenda.

The shock waves will serve as a chilling reminder that women’s abortion rights in Britain were hard fought for and are constantly under attack.”

ENDS

For further information and interviews please contact Anne Quesney, Abortion Rights Direct on 020 7278 5539 or mobile 07909 974 101.

Notes to editor:

1. Abortion Rights is the only abortion focussed campaigning and advocacy organisation in the UK. We lead the campaigns to defend and extend abortion rights and provide a pro-choice voice to the media.

2. Abortion Rights is campaigning to:

• Liberalise the current UK abortion law and make abortion available on request in the first three months and with one doctor’s signature thereafter.

• Improve access to, and experience of, abortion – ensure that all women in the UK have equal access to safe, legal and free abortion.

• Oppose any restrictions to women’s current rights and access to abortion

3. Abortion in the UK

• One in three women has an abortion in her lifetime

• 76 per cent of the British population support a woman’s right to choose.

• Abortion laws in the UK are more restrictive than in almost every other European country, where abortion on request is legal in the first three months of pregnancy

• Abortion has been legal in Britain since 1967, but only by permission of two doctors and in restricted circumstances

• Ten per cent of GPs consider themselves to be conscientious objectors and frequently refuse to grant women an abortion, despite General Medical Council guidelines.

• A quarter of women having abortions in England and Wales have to pay for them - there are no public funds available specifically to help poorer women in these circumstances

4. Roe v Wade

• Roe v Wade (1973) was a land mark US Supreme Court case establishing that laws against abortion violate a constitutional right to privacy, overturning all state laws outlawing or restricting abortion.