Demise of landmark abortion law will mark America's swing to religious right

WASHINGTON - The leak of a draft opinion penned by conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, one that would overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade verdict decriminalising abortion across the United States, has supercharged an already heated political landscape.

The stakes are high - and not only for the rights of women. Overturning Roe v Wade is a slippery slope; such a decision could potentially impact the fundamental principle and practice of the separation of church and state.