Former US president Donald Trump is being blamed after a years-long Republican offensive against women's rights to an abortion looks to have gained ground with the Supreme Court in America.
A draft memo of the court, written by Justice Samuel Alito, makes clear the conservative majority are set to strike down the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade decision.
That case enshrined a woman's right to privacy when it came to choosing an abortion - and thereby, her ability to obtain one - no matter which state.
The precedent has been challenged a number of times unsuccessfully, but a recent swing of the Supreme Court bench had many women's rights activists worried.
Now, they are aghast.
"It's terrifying, it's terrifying that these people are running our country, that these people are the ones that make decisions for us, our fate is in their hands," said mother of two Melissa Meshulam at a protest in New York.
"I'm completely in shock that I grew up in a place where my parents always said Roe vs Wade will never get overturned," she said.
READ MORE: Abortion protester scales 326-metre San Francisco building
Trump appointed three conservative justices to the bench during his administration, and openly discussed the value he placed on judges who agreed with pro-life arguments.
They joined Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Alito who, in his opinion, wrote that Roe was "egregiously wrong" and that the right to an abortion was not supported by the Constitution.
The court initially refused to confirm the validity of the leaked document, but has since announced it's conducting an investigation into how the memo came to fall into a journalist's hands.
None of that mattered to protesters on the streets on Wednesday who were worried about what the court will overturn next.
"I have a mother, I have a sister, I have female friends – this will affect them," protester Gabriel Sanchez said.
"But not only that, I'm also gay and so like, what could be next?"
US President Joe Biden is already warning the precedent set by overturning Roe could lead to changes around the rights for gay marriage and contraceptive access – rulings handed down off the back of Roe.
"If it becomes a law and if what is written is what remains, it goes far beyond the concern of whether or not there is the right to choose," Biden said.
"It goes to other basic rights, the right to marry, the right to determine a whole range of things."
The Court is due to release its final opinion in the next two months.
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