AFP

Elected leaders across the US political divide rallied Sunday for a long fight ahead on abortion — state by state and in Congress — with total bans in force or expected soon in half of the country.

Two days after the US Supreme Court scrapped half-century constitutional protections for the procedure, abortion rights defenders kept up their mobilization, with several hundred gathered outside the high court during a candlelight vigil in Washington Sunday.

Dozens of arrests and some instances of vandalism were reported during a weekend of mostly peaceful protests that turned disorderly in places — as the country grapples with a new level of division: between states where abortion is or will soon be illegal, and those that still allow it.

Conservative-led US state legislatures have moved swiftly, with at least eight imposing immediate bans on abortion — many with exceptions only if a woman’s life is in danger — and a similar number to follow suit within weeks.

In a first glimpse of the legal battles ahead, the nation’s largest abortion provider Planned Parenthood filed suit in Utah seeking to block the state’s ban.

And Democratic governors in Michigan and Wisconsin have stepped in to try to keep abortion legal in their Midwestern states.

Defending the ban now in effect in South Dakota, which makes no exception for victims of rape or incest, Republican Governor Kristi Noem called the Supreme Court’s ruling “wonderful news in the defense of life.”

Speaking on ABC’s “This Week,” Noem also voiced support for legislation banning “telemedicine abortions” in which a doctor prescribes pills to end a pregnancy — set to become a key resource in many places where abortion is illegal.

Governor Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas likewise argued that “forcing someone to carry a child to term” in order to save an unborn baby was an “appropriate” use of government power.

States should now focus on helping mothers and newborns by expanding services including adoption, he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

But the Republican also opposed calls to go further with a federal abortion ban — an ultimate goal of many on the religious right — or restrictions on contraception, which he said is “not going to be touched” in Arkansas.

Fears that the Supreme Court’s strong conservative majority — made possible by Donald Trump — will now seek to target other rights like same-sex marriage and contraception have fueled the nationwide mobilization since Friday.

– ‘Appalling’ –

President Joe Biden has condemned the Supreme Court’s ruling as a “tragic error” — but with power now resting with often anti-abortion state legislatures, he has also acknowledged his hands are largely tied.

The president’s main hope is for voters to turn out in defense of abortion rights in November’s midterm elections — and in the meantime, Biden’s Democrats have vowed to defend women’s reproductive rights every way they can.

In Wisconsin, where an 1849 law banning abortion except to save the life of the mother may go into effect, Governor Tony Evers vowed to offer clemency to any doctors who face prosecution, according to local media.

And Michigan’s Governor Gretchen Whitmer promised to “fight like hell,” saying a temporary injunction has been filed to keep abortion legal in her state.

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez warned nightmare scenarios may soon come true — as women are forced to continue with unwanted pregnancies, travel long distances to states where abortion remains legal, or undergo clandestine abortions.

“Forcing women to carry pregnancies against their will will kill them. It will kill them,” the progressive lawmaker told NBC, urging Biden to explore opening health care clinics on federal lands in conservative states in order to help people access abortion services.

A CBS poll released Sunday showed that a solid majority — 59 percent — of Americans and 67 percent of women disapproved of the court’s ruling.

While thousands of people rallied peacefully through the weekend — most of them in protest, but many others celebrating — there were isolated incidents of violence. Police fired tear gas on protesters in Arizona and a pickup truck drove through a group of protesters in Iowa.

In the Virginia city of Lynchburg, police were investigating a case of vandalism Saturday at an anti-abortion pregnancy center — which was spray-painted with graffiti and had its windows smashed.

And in Colorado, police were probing a suspected arson attack Saturday at a similar anti-abortion center in the town of Longmont, which was painted with graffiti reading: “If abortions aren’t safe, neither are you.”

A stampede occurred at a Pride parade in the US city of New York on Sunday, with hundreds of people attempting to flee after mistaking the sound of fireworks for gunfire, police said.

“There were NO shots fired in Washington Square Park. After an investigation, it was determined that the sound was fireworks set off at the location,” the NYPD said in a tweet shortly after the incident. 

Police told AFP “there were no serious injuries” from the stampede.

Terrified people ran or walked briskly along a street adjacent to the square after the scare, videos on social media showed.

Tens of thousands of people attended Sunday’s LGBTQIA+ Pride parade, which wound its way through the streets of lower Manhattan under the blazing sun.

The atmosphere was largely festive, although the shadow of Friday’s US Supreme Court decision to abolish a constitutional right to abortion — leaving states to legislate on the matter themselves — loomed over proceedings.

New York’s Pride parade is the second-largest in the United States, after San Francisco, and Sunday’s gathering was the first time it had taken place since the Covid-19 pandemic began.

Organizers said the US Supreme Court decision on abortion was “devastating.”

“This dangerous decision puts millions in harm’s way, gives government control over our individual freedom to choose, and sets a disturbing precedent that puts many other constitutional rights and freedoms in jeopardy,” organizers said. 

Many rights groups fear that the verdict on abortion could be the beginning of a broader push by the Supreme Court, currently dominated by a conservative majority, to curtail other freedoms won in recent decades, such as rights to contraception or same-sex marriage. 

Elected leaders across the US political divide rallied Sunday for a long fight ahead on abortion — state by state and in Congress — with total bans in force or expected soon in half of the country.

Two days after the US Supreme Court scrapped half-century constitutional protections for the procedure, abortion rights defenders kept up their mobilization, with several hundred gathered outside the high court during a candlelight vigil in Washington Sunday.

Dozens of arrests and some instances of vandalism were reported during a weekend of mostly peaceful protests that turned disorderly in places — as the country grapples with a new level of division: between states where abortion is or will soon be illegal, and those that still allow it.

Conservative-led US state legislatures have moved swiftly, with at least eight imposing immediate bans on abortion — many with exceptions only if a woman’s life is in danger — and a similar number to follow suit within weeks.

In a first glimpse of the legal battles ahead, the nation’s largest abortion provider Planned Parenthood filed suit in Utah seeking to block the state’s ban.

And Democratic governors in Michigan and Wisconsin have stepped in to try to keep abortion legal in their Midwestern states.

Defending the ban now in effect in South Dakota, which makes no exception for victims of rape or incest, Republican Governor Kristi Noem called the Supreme Court’s ruling “wonderful news in the defense of life.”

Speaking on ABC’s “This Week,” Noem also voiced support for legislation banning “telemedicine abortions” in which a doctor prescribes pills to end a pregnancy — set to become a key resource in many places where abortion is illegal.

Governor Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas likewise argued that “forcing someone to carry a child to term” in order to save an unborn baby was an “appropriate” use of government power.

States should now focus on helping mothers and newborns by expanding services including adoption, he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

But the Republican also opposed calls to go further with a federal abortion ban — an ultimate goal of many on the religious right — or restrictions on contraception, which he said is “not going to be touched” in Arkansas.

Fears that the Supreme Court’s strong conservative majority — made possible by Donald Trump — will now seek to target other rights like same-sex marriage and contraception have fueled the nationwide mobilization since Friday.

– ‘Appalling’ –

President Joe Biden has condemned the Supreme Court’s ruling as a “tragic error” — but with power now resting with often anti-abortion state legislatures, he has also acknowledged his hands are largely tied.

The president’s main hope is for voters to turn out in defense of abortion rights in November’s midterm elections — and in the meantime, Biden’s Democrats have vowed to defend women’s reproductive rights every way they can.

In Wisconsin, where an 1849 law banning abortion except to save the life of the mother may go into effect, Governor Tony Evers vowed to offer clemency to any doctors who face prosecution, according to local media.

And Michigan’s Governor Gretchen Whitmer promised to “fight like hell,” saying a temporary injunction has been filed to keep abortion legal in her state.

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez warned nightmare scenarios may soon come true — as women are forced to continue with unwanted pregnancies, travel long distances to states where abortion remains legal, or undergo clandestine abortions.

“Forcing women to carry pregnancies against their will will kill them. It will kill them,” the progressive lawmaker told NBC, urging Biden to explore opening health care clinics on federal lands in conservative states in order to help people access abortion services.

A CBS poll released Sunday showed that a solid majority — 59 percent — of Americans and 67 percent of women disapproved of the court’s ruling.

While thousands of people rallied peacefully through the weekend — most of them in protest, but many others celebrating — there were isolated incidents of violence. Police fired tear gas on protesters in Arizona and a pickup truck drove through a group of protesters in Iowa.

In the Virginia city of Lynchburg, police were investigating a case of vandalism Saturday at an anti-abortion pregnancy center — which was spray-painted with graffiti and had its windows smashed.

And in Colorado, police were probing a suspected arson attack Saturday at a similar anti-abortion center in the town of Longmont, which was painted with graffiti reading: “If abortions aren’t safe, neither are you.”

A long-delayed UN conference on how to restore the faltering health of global oceans kicks off in Lisbon Monday, with thousands of policymakers, experts and advocates on the case.

Humanity needs healthy oceans. They generate 50 percent of the oxygen we breathe and provide essential protein and nutrients to billions of people every day.

Covering more than two-thirds of Earth’s surface, the seven seas have also softened the impact of climate change for life on land. 

But at a terrible cost.

Absorbing around a quarter of CO2 pollution — even as emissions increased by half over the last 60 years — has turned sea water acidic, threatening aquatic food chains and the ocean’s capacity to pull down carbon. 

And soaking up more than 90 percent of the excess heat from global warming has spawned massive marine heatwaves that are killing off precious coral reefs and expanding dead zones bereft of oxygen.

“We have only begun to understand the extent to which climate change is going to wreak havoc on ocean health,” said Charlotte de Fontaubert, the World Bank’s global lead for the blue economy.

Making things worse is an unending torrent of pollution, including a garbage truck’s worth of plastic every minute, according the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). 

On current trends, yearly plastic waste will nearly triple to one billion tonnes by 2060, according to a recent OECD report.

– Wild fish stocks –

Microplastics — found inside Arctic ice and fish in the ocean’s deepest trenches — are estimated to kill more than a million seabirds and over 100,000 marine mammals each year.

Solutions on the table range from recycling to global caps on plastic production. 

Global fisheries will also be under the spotlight during the five-day UN Ocean Conference, originally slated for April 2020 and jointly hosted by Portugal and Kenya. 

“At least one-third of wild fish stocks are overfished and less than 10 percent of the ocean is protected,” Kathryn Matthews, chief scientist for US-based NGO Oceana, told AFP.

“Destructive and illegal fishing vessels operate with impunity in many coastal waters and on the high seas.”

One culprit is nearly $35 billion in subsidies. Baby steps taken last week by the World Trade Organization (WTO) to reduce handouts to industry will hardly make a dent, experts said.

The conference will also see a push for a moratorium on deep-sea mining of rare metals needed for a boom electric vehicle battery construction.

Scientists say poorly understood seabed ecosystems are fragile and could take decades or longer to heal once disrupted.

Another major focus will be “blue food”, the new watchword for ensuring that marine harvests from all sources are sustainable and socially responsible.

– Protected areas –

Rising aquaculture yields — from salmon and tuna to shellfish and algae — are on track to overtake wild marine harvests in decline since the 1990s, with each producing roughly 100 million tonnes per year.

If properly managed, “wild ocean fish can provide a climate-friendly, micro-nutrient protein source that can feed one billion people a healthy seafood meal every day — forever,” said Matthews.

The Lisbon meet will see ministers and even a few heads of state, including French President Emmanuel Macron, but is not a formal negotiating session.

But participants will push for a strong oceans agenda at two critical summits later this year: the COP27 UN climate talks in November, hosted by Egypt, followed by the long-delayed COP15 biodiversity negotiations, recently moved from China to Montreal.

Oceans are already at the heart of a draft biodiversity treaty tasked with halting what many scientists fear is the first “mass extinction” event in 65 million years.

Nearly 100 nations support a cornerstone provision that would designate 30 percent of the planet’s land and ocean as protected areas.

For climate change, the focus will be on carbon sequestration: boosting the ocean’s capacity to soak up CO2, whether by enhancing natural sinks such as mangroves or through geoengineering schemes.

At the same time, scientists warn, a drastic reduction of greenhouse gases is needed to restore ocean health.