US Vice President Kamala Harris has slammed the country's Supreme Court over its recent abortion law ruling.

"I think it's an activist court," Harris said in an interview with NBC television, excerpts of which were pre-released. "For almost half a century we had a solid right, which was the right of women to make decisions about their own bodies." The court took away that constitutional right. "And we suffer as a nation." She is "greatly concerned about the integrity of the court as a whole". The interview was scheduled to air in full on Sunday.

At the end of June, the US Supreme Court overturned a landmark ruling that had guaranteed the right to abortion in the US Constitution for almost 50 years. Now that this right is no longer protected by federal law, states can enact sweeping restrictions and prohibitions. Republican states in particular have already enacted restrictive abortion laws. The result of the Supreme Court ruling is also a patchwork of regulations. The US Supreme Court's decision sparked an outcry among pro-choice advocates.

The presiding judge of the Supreme Court, John Roberts, reacted in a rather rare speech to the broad criticism of the court. At an event in the state of Colorado, he said, "Just because people disagree with a decision is no reason to question the legitimacy of the court."