Abortion-rights groups are mobilising their forces against Samuel Alito, President George W. Bush’s nominee to the Supreme Court, and pro-choice Democrats have vowed to question him closely during his confirmation hearings, looking for any indication he might cast a deciding vote against abortion rights.

But the possibility that Mr Alito might move the court closer to overturning Roe v Wade – the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that made abortion legal in the US – is also prompting concern from another part of the political spectrum: suburban Republicans, who worry that such a move would destabilise the delicate political balance that gives them much of their support.