Information that had the effect of a bomb. The US Supreme Court is preparing to overturn the landmark ruling that made abortion a constitutional right in the United States, according to the US news site Politico, which is based on the unprecedented leak of a document of a hundred pages. A threat to the right to voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion), and a victory for conservative states.
The media claims, Monday, May 2, to have obtained the draft of a majority decision (in English), written by conservative judge Samuel Alito and dated February 10. In it, the Supreme Court affirms that the Roe v. Wade case, which established in 1973 that the American Constitution protects the right of women to have an abortion, is “totally unfounded from the start”. “The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each state from regulating or prohibiting abortion”who “constitutes a profound moral question” and “is not deeply rooted in the nation’s history and traditions”according to the judge.
The text can be negotiated until June 30, but if it is implemented, the United States will return to the situation in force before 1973, when each State was free to authorize or prohibit abortions. It is the last option which is chosen by more and more states led by Republicans. The vast majority already have restrictions in place that make abortion difficult, if not impossible.
The reactions of supporters of the right to abortion in the United States were immediate. The decision would be “an abomination, one of the worst and most damaging decisions in modern history”estimated in a joint press release (in English) Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi and Democratic Senator Leader Chuck Schumer.
“Let’s be clear: this is a preliminary draft. It is outrageous, unprecedented but not final. Abortion remains your right and is still legal”, tweeted the organization Planned Parenthood, which runs many clinics that perform abortions. Around 200 abortion rights advocates met spontaneously in the evening in front of the Supreme Court in Washington, and several elected Democrats considered that this court decision called for “enshrine Roe v. Wade into law”as Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar said on Twitter.
But the measure is the subject of fierce obstruction from Republicans, who are blocking a proposal to do so in the Senate and have hailed a long-awaited victory. “This is the best and most important news of our lives”commented Representative Marjorie Taylor Green, as her conferee Josh Hawley called on the highest court in the United States to publish “right now” its stop.