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The US Supreme Court decision to revoke the constitutional right to abortion last week, overturning the historic Roe v Wade legislation, has positioned the US alongside Poland, El Salvador, and Nicaragua as the only nations to backtrack on or restrict abortion policy in decades. Many fear that this decision will have repercussions around the world given the political, cultural and financial influence of the US.

Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health. She says she’s still in a state of shock over the ruling, which she describes as a massive retrogression, adding that legal barriers should not be put in the way of international human rights law. She’s concerned now over the US using its ‘global gag rule’ which prohibits NGOs who receive US health assistance from providing legal abortion services or referrals. She goes on to say this could be used by other politicians around the world to push for similar rules in their own countries, and that this has happened with other laws in countries in east and west Africa and elsewhere.

Photo: A doctor specialising in reproductive health attends to a patient at his clinic in Kayole, Kenya Credit: Getty Images