The US Supreme Court is about to hear the most important abortion case in a generation.
On Wednesday it will consider a Mississippi law that asks the court to ban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
It’s final ruling, due in June next year, could cut off abortion services for tens of millions of women.
What is the right to abortion in the US?
A woman’s right to abortion was established in 1973, following a Supreme Court ruling in a case known as Roe v Wade.
The decision gave women in the US an absolute right to an abortion in the first three months of pregnancy, and limited rights in the second three months.
Nearly two decades later the court made another key decision.
In Planned Parenthood v Casey, the court ruled that states could not place an “undue burden” on women seeking abortions before foetal viability.
In the US, this threshold for when fetuses can sustain life outside the womb has been set at about 23 or 24 weeks.
