US Supreme court breaks off the right to abortion.

The US Supreme Court on Friday ended abortion rights in a seismic ruling that undid half a century of constitutional protections on one of the most contentious and hotly contested 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, declaring that individual states can now allow or restrict the procedure themselves.

“The Constitution does not grant a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled, and the power to regulate abortion will be returned to the people and their elected representatives,” the court said.

In the majority opinion, Justice Samuel Alito said, "Abortion presents a profound moral issue on which Americans hold sharply conflicting views.

"The Constitution does not prohibit state citizens from regulating or prohibiting abortion," he said. The three liberals in court were dissident.

The ruling is likely to unleash a cavalcade of new laws in about half of the 50 states that will severely limit or outlaw abortion and criminalize it, forcing women to travel long distances to states that still allow the procedure.

The opinion shattered the judgment in Roe v. Wade of the nation's highest court in 1973 that women have the right to an abortion based on the constitutional right to privacy over their bodies.

Alito's opinion largely reflects his draft opinion, which was the subject of an extraordinary leak in early May that sparked demonstrations across the country and tightened security at the central Washington courthouse.

Barricades were erected around the courthouse to hold back protesters gathered outside - after a gunman was arrested near the home of Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh on June 8.

The court's ruling goes against an international trend of relaxing abortion laws, including in countries like Ireland, Argentina, Mexico and Colombia where the Catholic Church remains significant.

It marks a victory over 50 years of the religious right's anti-abortion struggle, but the anti-abortion camp is expected to continue to push for a total nationwide ban.

The ruling was made possible by former Republican President Donald Trump's nomination of three conservative judges to the court -- Neil Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.

The case before the court was a Mississippi law that would limit abortion to 15 weeks, but during the December hearing on the case, several judges said they were ready to go further.

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