Sunday 26 June 2022 07:45 AM Liberal Sussan Ley slams the US Supreme Court's decision to overturn abortion ... trends now
A conservative Australian politician has slammed the US Supreme Court's decision to overturn abortion rights.
The decision to reverse the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade ruling signalled an end to constitutional right to abortion in the US - meaning individual states will be left to decide whether abortion can be made illegal.
Women with unwanted pregnancies in America will now face the choice of traveling to another state where the procedure remains legal and available, buying abortion pills online and hoping they don't get caught using them, or having a potentially dangerous illegal abortion.
Following the ruling on Friday, Australian deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley said: 'This has been a step backwards for women in the US.'
Deputy Liberal leader said overturning Roe v Wade is a 'step backwards' for the USA
Pictured: Pro-life protesters at a demonstration in Washington in June. Individual states will now decide whether the procedure should be criminalised
'I'm very discomforted by anything that puts a personal and sensitive issue that a woman has to grapple with in many instances, or a family has to grapple with, in the same sentence as criminal,' she told Sky News on Sunday.
Ms Ley also agreed with former US president Bill Clinton's famous proclaimation that abortion should be 'safe, legal and rare'.
Up to 26 of the nation's 50 states are considered 'certain or likely' to ban the procedure. Abortion was automatically banned in 13 states following the decision.
Australian Government frontbencher Jason Clare said he shared the anger, frustration and grief people are experiencing and talking about in the US and right across the world.
'Thank god we are a country here in Australia where abortion is not an issue that divides the Labor Party and Liberal Party,' he said.
'I'm thinking at the moment for the women who live in some of these states that are basically being told today that if you want to have an abortion then get on a bus and travel a couple of hundred kilometres.'
On Friday, the US Supreme Court overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalised abortion nationwide (pictured, protesters in Denver, Colorado)
Over the weekend, prominent Australia including former Australian of the Year Grace Tame and former Bachelor
