RICHMOND, Va. -- Planned Parenthood has called for a 1 p.m. rally in Richmond to speak out in favor of a woman's rights to abortion access.
The rally was announced minutes after the U.S. Supreme Court ended constitutional protections for abortion.
The Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states.
Mississippi is one 13 states, mainly in the South and Midwest, that already have laws on the books that ban abortion when Roe is overturned. Another half-dozen states have near-total bans or prohibitions after 6 weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant.
In roughly a half-dozen other states, the fight will be over dormant abortion bans that were enacted before Roe was decided in 1973 or new proposals to sharply limit when abortions can be performed, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.
The ruling is expected to disproportionately affect minority women who already face limited access to health care, according to statistics analyzed by The Associated Press.
More than 90% of abortions take place in the first 13 weeks of pregnancy, and more than half are now done with pills, not surgery, according to data compiled by Guttmacher.
Friday's Planned Parenthood rally is scheduled to take place at the Bell Tower in Capitol Square outside the Virginia State Capitol.
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