The US Supreme Court has overturned the country’s abortion law. Six of the nine judges voted in favor of the decision, the Supreme Court announced on Friday. This had already become apparent after a draft judgment had been pushed through in early May.

In a landmark decision in 1973, the Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade allows abortions nationwide until the fetus is viable, i.e. up to about 24 weeks gestation. At the time, the court derived a federal right to abortion from women’s right to privacy.

The new Supreme Court ruling allows the 50 states to decide on abortion rights at the state level. Several of them have already enacted laws that severely restrict abortion now that the federal regulation has been removed. A federal abortion law proposed by the Democrats failed in the Senate in mid-May.