Boost for US abortion rights groups

A unanimous US Supreme Court restored a powerful weapon to abortion-rights activists by ruling that a federal racketeering law could be used to stop protesters from blockading clinics, Reuter reports from Washington.

The court said the activists could invoke the 24-year-old law, conceived and traditionally used to fight the Mafia, to stop militant groups such as Operation Rescue from blocking access to clinics and harassing women seeking abortions.