Joe Biden on Tuesday launched a major political battle for abortion the day after the extraordinary leak of a draft Supreme Court decision reversing this right, the president directly calling on Americans to defend abortion at the polls during of the next elections.
“I believe that women’s right to choose is fundamental,” he said in a statement, calling on voters to “choose candidates in favor” of the right to abortion in the midterm elections in November, in November. in which the ruling camp is traditionally defeated.
“Congress must protect access to abortion,” tweeted House Democrat Jake Auchincloss. “Let’s pass the Women’s Health Protection Act to enshrine in law the protections of Roe v. Wade as soon as possible, ”added his Senate colleague Tim Kaine.
On the Republican side, we were pleased on Tuesday with a decision seen as a huge victory made possible by the profound reshuffle of the Court during the mandate of Donald Trump, who replaced three of its members and tipped the balance heavily on the conservative side (six judges against three progressives).
If it were proven, the high court having to render its judgment by the end of June, this decision would be “an answer to (our) prayers”, thus tweeted the elected Jackie Walorski.
The very conservative elected from Georgia Marjorie Taylor Greene has also projected herself towards the next electoral deadlines, calling on a “Republican-controlled Congress” to pass a law recognizing the fetus’ rights equivalent to those of a person already born.
“Unfounded” judgment
According to the text published Monday evening by Politico, the highest court in the country is preparing to overturn its landmark “Roe v. Wade,” dating back to 1973, and guaranteeing every woman the constitutional right to have an abortion even in the most conservative states.
This judgment “Roe v. Wade” was “totally unfounded from the start,” conservative judge Samuel Alito wrote in the extremely rare leaked draft ruling.
“We believe that Roe v. Wade must be annulled” and that the right to abortion “is not protected by any provision of the Constitution”, writes Samuel Alito in this 98-page document supposed to be able to be negotiated until June 30.
“The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each state from regulating or prohibiting abortion,” Alito said.
If this conclusion is accepted by the Court, the United States will therefore return to the situation before 1973, when each State was free to prohibit or authorize abortion.
Given the fractures on the subject, half of the States, especially in the South and the center conservative and religious, should quickly banish it.
Never seen
The Supreme Court had since September sent several favorable signals to opponents of abortion. She had refused to prevent the entry into force of a Texas law limiting the right to an abortion to the first six weeks of pregnancy, against two trimesters in the current legal framework.
Then, during the December review of another restrictive law, this time from Mississippi, a majority of its justices had made it clear that they were prepared to nibble or even strike down Roe v. Wade.
According to Politico, which quotes a person with knowledge of the court’s deliberations, four other conservative justices — Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — sided with Samuel Alito. The three progressive justices are working on a dissenting pitch and the final vote of the President of the Court, John Roberts, remains unknown.
Questioned by AFP, the Court declined to comment.
More than a hundred demonstrators, opposed to the decision or came to greet it, had gathered in front of the Supreme Court on Tuesday morning, separated by barriers.
The day before, Democratic governors of several states including California, New Mexico and Michigan, had announced that they wanted to enshrine the legality of the right to abortion even if the Court annulled “Roe v. Wade”.
“We can’t trust (the Supreme Court) to protect abortion rights so we’ll do it ourselves,” California Governor Gavin Newsom said. “Women will remain protected here. »