A ‘bat****’ bill shows how far states could push their anti-abortion agenda

The phones at the office of Women with a Vision were “ringing off the hook” when the staff at the New Orleans community health centre returned to their office on 3 May, the morning after a leaked draft opinion from the US Supreme Court signalled the end of constitutional protections for abortion access.

“People were sending messages through social media: ‘Is it gone?’” director Deon Haywood told The Independent.

The following day, a state legislative committee approved a bill to classify abortion as homicide, with language that criminalised fertility treatments, miscarriages and certain forms of birth control, and potentially sending patients to prison.