US top court to weigh abortion rights case

The US Supreme Court has agreed to consider a major roll-back of abortion rights, saying it will take up Mississippi's bid to enforce a 15-week ban on abortion.

The court's order sets up a showdown over abortion, probably in the northern autumn, with a more conservative court seemingly ready to dramatically alter nearly 50 years of rulings on abortion rights.

The court first announced a woman's constitutional right to an abortion in the 1973 Roe v Wade decision and reaffirmed it 19 years later.

The state's ban had been blocked by lower courts as inconsistent with Supreme Court precedent that protects a woman's right to obtain an abortion before the fetus can survive outside her womb.