Fifty years ago in 1973, the case of Roe vs Wade established that women in the United States had a constitutional right to an abortion. On 24 June 2022, the US Supreme Court of 9 judges voted to overturn this ruling. The implications of this are huge, not only for 36 million American women who are immediately affected, but for women everywhere including the United Kingdom.The embers of the debate about the ownership and politicisation of women’s bodies have re-ignited and there is no room for complacency in even the most stable of liberal democracies. It’s vital for women to look carefully at what is happening, and to take action. The ruling means that individual states in the US are now able to ban abortion. ‘Trigger laws’ for an automatic ban have already been passed in thirteen states, some of them making abortion illegal even in the event of rape or incest. Throughout America the response to the ruling has been swift, angry and fearful. Protests and demonstrations have been supp