Protesters, reproductive health advocates and media crowded outside of Jackson Women's Health Organization, an abortion clinic in Mississippi that is at the center of a decision to reverse national abortion rights.

Pink House Defenders, a group that stands outside the clinic and escorts women inside for abortion services, said protesters have calmed down since the decision was announced Friday.

"We’re used to protesters every day. But I got to admit, today they are being a little extra," said a clinic escort, who declined to give her name.

She added that the news media was also lining the streets. She said she is fed up with all of it.

"On top of all of that, we still have to escort our patients inside," she said.

Outside of the clinic, anti-abortion protesters were handing out pamphlets that say, "This is not your only choice."

Not all countries are as divided as the U.S. is on abortion access. According to a 2021 Ipsos survey of abortion attitudes in 27 countries, an average of 71% of people worldwide support abortion in all instances or in certain circumstances.

The U.S. ranked in the lower third among countries included in the poll, with 66% of the country supporting abortion access in all or most cases. Sweden ranked the highest with 88%.

After Friday’s Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, pro-abortion rights lawmakers argued that some of the justices who voted in the majority opinion misled senators during their confirmation process.

“This decision is inconsistent with what Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh said in their testimony and their meetings with me,” Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said.

The future of the landmark Roe decision has long been a topic of Supreme Court confirmations.

All six Supreme Court judges who voted to uphold the Mississippi law at the center of Friday’s decision were asked about Roe v. Wade during their confirmation hearings. Justices appointed by then-President Donald Trump, in particular, were interrogated at length, as he had vowed as a candidate to appoint judges who would overturn Roe.

Here's what they said at the time.

The Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade is “the biggest blow to women’s health and rights” in recent American history, the head of International Planned Parenthood said Friday.

The director general of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, Dr. Alvaro Bermejo, called the decision “an outrageous and devastating conclusion to what was already an unconstitutional removal of life-saving healthcare.”

He added:

“By continuing its unbridled attack on women’s bodies and forcing them to carry pregnancies to term, the highest court in the land has reached its lowest point, robbing millions of their liberty, bodily autonomy and freedom — the very values the United States prides itself on.

“We know for a fact that banning abortion does not mean fewer abortions and that when abortion bans are enacted, women and pregnant people die, as we have seen across the globe, most recently in Poland. We also know that those who cannot access safe abortion care legally, including medical abortion pills, will be forced into unregulated and unsafe methods, potentially resulting in serious harm or even death and costing lives for decades to come."

Vice President Kamala Harris blasted the Supreme Court's ruling at an event in Illinois and echoed President Joe Biden's remarks that voters have the power to elect leaders who protect their rights.

Harris, who served as California's attorney general before being elected to the Senate, said that the opinion argues that abortion is "not deeply rooted in our history."

She said Friday's decision calls into question "other rights that we thought were settled, such as the right to use birth control, the right to same-sex marriage, the right to interracial marriage."

"The great aspiration of our nation has been to expand freedom, but the expansion of freedom clearly is not inevitable," she said. "It is not something that just happens."

Harris said she invites people to stand together in defense of liberty, freedom and the right to self-determination.

"You have the power to elect leaders who will defend or protect your rights," she said, urging people to vote.

Tears flowed and voices bellowed outside the Supreme Court on Friday, as activists on both sides of the abortion issue bore emotion-filled witness to the end of the Roe era.

“It’s really a visceral issue,” said Mai El-Sadany, a human rights lawyer who opposes Friday’s decision. “The people who showed up here are really angry and they didn’t want to be alone.” 

That was true for many of the abortion rights supporters, who wore stickers, held signs, chanted slogans and, at times, wept. They vowed that they would continue to fight for abortion rights, and some wore T-shirts advertising their willingness to “aid and abet” women seeking abortions in states where they will soon be banned or heavily restricted.

Read more here.

Friday’s Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade is a setback for women that will hinder access to safe abortions, according to a statement from Northwell Health.

“Northwell Health is disappointed by the US Supreme Court’s ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, which made access to safe and legal abortion a constitutional right for five decades,” the statement said. “This decision is a setback for women’s reproductive health. Our concern as the region’s largest health care provider is that this ruling will succeed in ending access to safe abortions and disproportionately cause harm to those who already have limited access to health care.”

Northwell Health is New York state's largest health care provider.

“In New York State, we already have laws that establish a woman’s right to an abortion. Governor Hochul recently signed a series of bills that preserve this right and, importantly, offer protections for health care providers in the state who perform this procedure legally. But we will vigorously monitor any developments related to this very important issue in the coming months and we will continue to advocate in the name of raising women’s health.”

Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said the Supreme Court's decision to end 50 years of federal abortion rights "takes away an individual personal liberty" and warned that it will affect other important issues.

"Its impact is going to reverberate beyond abortion no matter what the majority tried to say about that," she said at a news conference Friday afternoon.

"Generations of people have relied on this right and they’ll now be thrown into a world without it. I can’t emphasize enough what a cataclysmic change this will be, how much chaos we will see in the coming days and month," added Julie Rikelman, the center's litigation director, who in December argued against the Dobbs case. "The impact of this ruling truly will be swift and severe."

Northup — who successfully argued the 2016 Whole Woman’s Health case which banned Texas from replacing restrictions on abortion services — said that Friday's ruling puts at risk the right to use contraception and the right to gay marriage.

"The Supreme Court, having done something it’s never done before, which is take away an individual personal liberty, it has never done that in its history, and it can’t be underestimated about what that means," she said, adding: "And the decision is also the biggest setback to women’s rights, I would say in United States history."