Very disturbing news from the leader of the free world as the American Supreme Court decides that its countrywomen have had enough of the constitutional freedom and overturns abortions right, upending the landmark Roe vs Wade verdict after half a century. The right to access abortion until the point a foetus can survive outside the mother’s body has been overturned despite the wave of outrage across the liberal community. A heated movement by Democrats to enshrine the support for a woman’s body, her health and most of all, her choices, in law, still flickers as a faint ray of hope for those who just cannot believe their Justices have willingly let deceit compromise the provision of human rights. All might not be lost even in a post-Trump apocalyptic United States of America, once revered as the land where dreams come true. Because people like Californian Governor Gavin Newsom have not yet decided to bow down to what next-door neighbours like Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are bemoaning as a “horrific” development, threatening the fundamental liberties of women. What had started as a fully-funded onslaught against agencies like Planned Parenthood and a presidential vile discourse that got a dopamine-hit from subjugating women has, unfortunately, turned into a very public curtailment of the women and their status as “free and equal citizens.”Having endured regressive regimes in the past that looked at reproductive rights and female anatomy per se through conservatively-tainted glasses, Pakistan can well relate to the dire implications the ruling would hold, especially for women from vulnerable segments. Although we have, thus, evolved after our escape from the dark days of “Chadar” and “Char Deewari” and Pakistani regulations place crucial importance on any woman’s life and health, simply legalising abortion does not get rid of abject stigmatisation, dearth of an equipped abortion clinic and the critically unavailable post-abortion care. It can only be hoped that after Washington’s judiciary has failed, the legislature would step up to send the right message across. Meanwhile, we, too, need to read the writing on the wall and take a deeper look at why deadly procedures keep killing thousands of women across the country every year. *