Fresh protests as new U.S. abortion reality takes shape

Eight States impose ban on the procedure

Abortion rights defenders fanned out across America on Saturday for the second day of protest against the Supreme Court's thunderbolt ruling, as state after conservative state moved swiftly to ban the procedure.

The deeply polarized country grappled with a new level of division: between states that will now or soon deny the right to abortion, enshrined since 1973, and those that still allow it.

A few thousand people thronged the streets on Saturday outside the fenced-off Supreme Court in Washington, in hot summer weather, carrying signs that read "War on women, who's next?" and "No uterus, No opinion."

"What happened yesterday is indescribable and disgusting," said Mia Stagner, 19, a political science major in college. "Being forced to be a mother is not something any woman should have to do."

Demonstrations also took place in Los Angeles, with dozens of smaller rallies from coast to coast.

At least eight right-leaning states imposed immediate bans on abortion -- with a similar number to follow suit in coming weeks - after the Supreme Court eliminated 50-year-old constitutional protections for the procedure, drawing criticism from some of America's closest allies around the world.

Fueling the mobilization, many now fear that the Supreme Court, with a clear conservative majority made possible by Donald Trump, might next set its sights on rights like same-sex marriage and contraception.