An increase in abortions. This is the probable effect of the anticipated abolition of Roe c. Wade by the United States Supreme Court, an abolition that would allow American states that so wish to ban abortion, or even criminalize it.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
It’s not my little finger that tells me, but science. An analysis of abortion rates in 150 countries, published just a month ago by the Guttmacher Institute in collaboration with the World Health Organization, shows that among the wealthiest countries on the planet, those who have permissive abortion laws also have the lowest abortion rates.
How do we explain this correlation, which at first sight seems counter-intuitive? According to several experts, the more choices women have to control their reproductive health, whether in terms of contraception, family planning or access to abortion, the fewer unwanted pregnancies they have. Therefore, fewer terminations of pregnancy requested.
A bit annoying as an observation for those who say they want to save hundreds of thousands of fetuses from assassination by restricting access to abortion or by making it disappear altogether.
I was already studying this phenomenon during my bachelor’s degree at an American university in the late 1990s. At the time, the conservative right wanted to prevent the arrival in the United States of the abortion pill, RU-486 or its equivalent, claiming that the abortion rate would skyrocket.
Rather the opposite has happened. The abortion rate in the United States, which peaked in 1980 at 29.3 abortions per 1,000 women of reproductive age, fell below 20 abortions after the approval of the abortion pill in 2000 and has been falling ever since. According to the most recent statistics available, those from 2017, the abortion rate in the United States is around 13.5. A historic floor.
Despite these eloquent figures not dating from yesterday, the movement which calls itself “pro-life” and which is leading the way within the Republican Party continues its crusade headlong against the right to abortion.
Not against abortion itself, since the practice is not going away, according to what science tells us, but against women’s right to have ultimate control over their reproductive lives.
Because that’s the target. The real target.
The darts match is far from won.
The reaction across the United States has been strong since Politico’s scoop went live Monday night. The news outlet has gotten its hands on a draft Supreme Court ruling that would strike down US-wide abortion rights protections.
If this decision is confirmed, each State will do as it sees fit. We already know that at least 13 States will prohibit the vast majority of voluntary terminations of pregnancy. Others will tighten the screw.
For American women who want to have an abortion, it will be a real headache. They will either have to go to a State where the termination of pregnancy will always be permitted, obtain the abortion pill (by mail, in particular) or have recourse to a clandestine abortion, putting, in the worst cases, their health, or even their lives in danger.
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On Tuesday, demonstrations to protect the right to abortion were not long in Washington as in New York, where thousands of people took to the streets. We will have to see if this movement will snowball.
In 2016, American women had mobilized by the millions to defend their rights after the election of Donald Trump. And the threat was only theoretical. This time it’s real, and it’s a safe bet that the pink hats – the pussy hats – of the Women’s March will resume service.
The politicians didn’t waste a second either. In Washington, President Joe Biden has promised to wage a major political battle for women’s rights.
Stars on the left of his party, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have issued a strong call for Democratic troops to be mobilized.
And all this, barely six months before the holding of the midterm elections which could redraw the distribution of power in the American Congress.
It was expected that the Democrats – plagued by their internal dissension and the lack of popularity of their president – would be punished at the polls. But now the question of abortion risks reshuffling all the cards by giving the party a rallying point. A cause. A target. A real target.