From Roe v Wade to Alabama: How America’s abortion laws have gone into reverse

In 1973 America’s Supreme Court legalised abortion across the country through its ruling in the case of Roe v Wade. 

After a series of challenges followed, the court reaffirmed its core ruling in Roe in another pivotal case in 1992, Casey v Planned Parenthood, but introduced the "undue burden" test.

This paved the way for states to place restrictions on the practice as long as it did not impose an "undue burden" on a woman’s access to abortion.

Now Alabama has gone further than ever in banning abortion altogether, including in cases of rape or incest, unless the pregnancy puts a woman’s life at risk. 

The new legislation, approved by the state’s Republican governor late on Wednesday, is the strictest…