First published June 25, 2022.
When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on 24 June 2022, the reaction abroad was swift and mostly critical. Within hours, the leaders of Canada, France, the United Kingdom and Spain, Scotland’s First Minister and the head of the World Health Organization had all spoken out, while a few conservative voices welcomed the ruling. Protests followed in cities including London, Edinburgh and Paris.
This article sets out what the court decided in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, what leaders around the world said, and how the decision fits into global trends on abortion law.
What the Supreme Court decided
The case concerned a Mississippi law that banned most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Under Roe (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), states could not ban abortion before a fetus was viable, usually put at around 23 to 24 weeks, so lower courts had blocked the law.
Two separate votes are often confused. The court ruled 6 to 3 that Mississippi’s law could stand. But only five justices went further and overturned Roe and Casey altogether. Justice Samuel Alito wrote the majority opinion, joined by Justices Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett. Chief Justice John Roberts agreed that the Mississippi law should be upheld but would not have overturned Roe. Justices Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan wrote a joint dissent.
The practical effect was to remove the federal constitutional right to abortion that had stood for almost 50 years and return the question to individual states.
What world leaders said
Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was among the first to respond; she was widely reported as calling it “one of the darkest days for women’s rights in my lifetime.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, according to The Washington Post, described the news as “horrific” and said he could not imagine the fear and anger women in the United States were feeling. In a widely shared post he added: “No government, politician, or man should tell a woman what she can and cannot do with her body.”
French President Emmanuel Macron wrote that “abortion is a fundamental right for all women. It must be protected,” and expressed solidarity with American women whose freedoms were being challenged.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called the ruling a big step backwards and said he had always supported a woman’s right to choose. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said women must be able to decide freely about their own lives.
The World Health Organization’s Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said he was very disappointed and that women’s rights must be protected. In Mexico, where the Supreme Court had decriminalised abortion the previous year, Chief Justice Arturo Zaldívar said he had rarely been so proud of his own court.
Not every reaction was critical
Support came from some religious and conservative figures. The Vatican called for a non-ideological debate on the protection of life in society. In Germany, Beatrix von Storch of the far-right AfD party welcomed the ruling and predicted its influence would spread across the West.
These reactions show that the decision did not land on a uniform world. Abortion remains contested in many countries, and the U.S. ruling became a reference point for campaigners on both sides.
Where the U.S. stands globally
Over recent decades the international trend has run strongly toward easing abortion restrictions. The Center for Reproductive Rights, cited by The Washington Post, counts more than 50 countries that have liberalised their laws. Ireland voted in a 2018 referendum to repeal one of the strictest bans in Europe, Argentina legalised abortion in late 2020, and Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled against criminal penalties in 2021.
Only a handful of countries have moved the other way. The Washington Post noted that the United States and Poland were the only two developed countries to tighten abortion rights in the 21st century. Earlier claims that the U.S. had become “one of three countries” to restrict access were an oversimplification; the comparison depends on which countries and which period are counted.
France took a sharply different path. In March 2024 its parliament wrote the guaranteed freedom to have an abortion into the constitution, a move that supporters linked directly to the American ruling.
What changed inside the United States
Thirteen states had so-called trigger laws designed to ban most abortions as soon as Roe fell, and several others had old bans that became enforceable again. Within months, abortion was banned or heavily restricted across much of the South and Midwest, while other states moved to protect access and to shield patients who travelled from elsewhere.
Abortion also moved to the ballot box. Voters in many states have since decided the issue directly through referendums, with results that have not always matched the politics of the state’s elected leaders.
Because state laws continue to change through legislation, court rulings and votes, anyone needing current information about access should check a reliable, up-to-date source for their own state and talk to a doctor or a licensed clinic.
Why the international reaction mattered
Foreign leaders rarely comment on another country’s court rulings. That so many did shows how closely the world watches the United States, and how far Roe had become a symbol beyond American borders. For allies such as Canada and France, the ruling was also a domestic story: it prompted debate about whether their own protections were secure, and in France’s case led to constitutional change.
Years later, Dobbs remains one of the most consequential decisions of the modern Supreme Court, and the reactions of June 2022 remain a snapshot of how differently countries now approach the same question.
Sources: The Washington Post: global reaction to the Roe v. Wade ruling (24 June 2022); Wikipedia: Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
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