Nicola Sturgeon has spoken out in support women in America who fear their long-guaranteed right to abortion is about to be overturned. 

The First Minister has joined President Joe Biden in criticising a “radical” leaked draft Supreme Court opinion that would throw out the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade abortion rights ruling which has stood for half-a-century. 

Ms Sturgeon said that the right of women “to decide what happens to our own bodies” is a human right, and warned that removing abortions would simply drive people to desperate means.  

A decision to overrule Roe would lead to abortion bans in roughly half American states, spark new efforts in Democratic-leaning states to protect access to abortion, and potentially reshape the contours of this year’s hotly contested midterm elections. 

The leaked Supreme Court opinion was made public yesterday, sparking protest and condemnation across America amid fears that one of the most fiercely contested rights of women was about to be removed. 

Tweeting last night, Ms Sturgeon said: “The right of women to decide what happens to our own bodies is a human right. And experience tells us that removing the legal right to abortion doesn’t stop abortions happening - it just makes them unsafe and puts the lives of women at much greater risk.” 

The First Minister signed off with the hashtag #Roe, ensuring her voice joined those speaking out over the controversy.  

Speaking to reporters before boarding Air Force One, Mr Biden said he hoped the draft would not be finalised by justices, contending it reflected a “fundamental shift in American jurisprudence” that threatened “other basic rights” like access to birth control and marriage. 

He added: “If this decision holds, it’s really quite a radical decision.” 

He said the “basic fairness and the stability of our law demand” that the court does not overturn Roe. 

“If the court does overturn Roe, it will fall on our nation’s elected officials at all levels of government to protect a woman’s right to choose,” Mr Biden said. 

“And it will fall on voters to elect pro-choice officials this November. At the federal level, we will need more pro-choice senators and a pro-choice majority in the house to adopt legislation that codifies Roe, which I will work to pass and sign into law.” 

The Herald:

Protesters gather outside the US Supreme Court last night

Although past efforts have failed, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he intended to hold a vote. 

“This is as urgent and real as it gets,” Mr Schumer said on the Senate floor on Tuesday. 

“Every American is going to see on which side every senator stands.” 

The draft opinion strongly suggests that when the justices met in private shortly after arguments in the case on December 1, at least five voted to overrule Roe and Casey, and Justice Alito was assigned the task of writing the court’s majority opinion. 

“Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” the draft opinion states. It was signed by Justice Samuel Alito, a member of the court’s six-three conservative majority who was appointed by former president George W Bush. 

The document was labelled a “1st Draft” of the “Opinion of the Court” in a case challenging Mississippi’s ban on abortion after 15 weeks, a case known as Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organisation. 

The draft opinion in effect states there is no constitutional right to abortion services and would allow individual states to more heavily regulate or actually ban the procedure. 

“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” it states, referencing the 1992 case Planned Parenthood v Casey that affirmed Roe’s finding of a constitutional right to abortion services but allowed states to place some constraints on the practice. 

“It is time to heed the constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”