Roe v Wade Abortion Rights Are Gone & These Are The States Where Bans Are Expected

The landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling Roe v. Wade was officially overturned on Friday, opening the door for conservative lawmakers to ban or restrict abortion for millions of people across the country.

Critics are blasting the move as a major step back for women and gender rights, while backers are preparing for states to impose strict new rules around who can and can't get a procedure done.

The decision comes after a Supreme Court leak signalled that this would happen back in May, and little has changed since that news first broke.

Without Roe v. Wade, states will be allowed to make their own rules around abortions, and many have already been sitting on "trigger" laws for exactly this moment.

Essentially, about half of the U.S. states are expected to ban or severely restrict abortion in the coming days, weeks and months, according to the Guttmacher Institute, an organization that tracks such laws.

"The Supreme Court has taken away our right to abortion and overturned Roe v. Wade, opening the floodgates for states across the country to ban abortion," tweeted Planned Parenthood Action.

"The court has failed us all — but this is far from over."

At the moment, lawmakers have signalled that abortion will soon become prohibited or restricted in 20 states, while 10 states have not signalled clearly which way they'll go, according to an analysis by The New York Times.

States like Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Arizona and Ohio are expected to ban abortions with no exceptions for rape or incest, according to the Times and the Guttmacher Institute.

In addition to those states, Idaho, Mississippi, North Dakota, Utah, West Virginia, Wyoming, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina are also expected to prohibit or restrict access to abortions.

Other states such as Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin are uncertain about their stance on abortion policy. That means they could go one way or another depending on who is in charge.

Alaska, Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Rhode Island, California, Connecticut, D.C., Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington are likely to keep abortions legal, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

U.S. President Joe Biden blasted the Supreme Court for its decision on Friday, but couldn't do anything to overturn it.

"This is an extreme and dangerous path the court is now taking us on," Biden said at a news conference.

"The Supreme Court expressly took away a Constitutional right from the American people that it had already recognized," he added on Twitter.

"They simply took it away. That's never been done to a right that is so important to so many Americans."