US president Barack Obama said today he was shocked and outraged at the murder of a top doctor who performed late-term abortions.

Barack Obama won the support of former presidential candidate John Edwards as he shrugged off a landslide victory by rival Hillary Clinton in West Virginia.

A near-total ban on abortions has been signed into law in South Dakota, a measure the governor called a “direct frontal assault” on the US Supreme Court decision to legalise the procedure 33 years ago.

THE US senate has voted to make it a separate offence to harm a foetus during a violent crime, in a victory for those seeking to expand legal rights of the unborn.