(New York) Despite their valiant efforts, Texas Republican elected officials have failed to shield their controversial abortion law from federal court scrutiny. But they haven’t lost anything yet, far from it.
In a ruling on Friday morning, the United States Supreme Court allowed abortion clinics in Texas to challenge before a federal trial judge the law in that southwestern state that bans most abortions after the sixth. week of pregnancy.
However, far from celebrating this decision, activists and pro-choice groups greeted it with a good dose of pessimism. Because the highest American authority has not simply refused to block this law which delegates to ordinary citizens the power to enforce it, with the possibility of pocketing a bonus of at least $ 10,000 in the event of conviction.
She also provided abortion clinics with only a narrow avenue to challenge her. And this, even if the measure violates a constitutional right conferred by the judgment “Roe v. Wade, ”who legalized abortion in the United States in 1973 until fetal viability, about 22 weeks.
It is astounding that the Supreme Court has basically said that federal courts cannot stop this bounty hunter system adopted for blatantly denying Texans their constitutional right to abortion.
Nancy Northup, President of the Center for Reproductive Rights
“The Court has abandoned its duty to ensure that states do not challenge its decisions. This six-week ban has been in effect for 100 days now, and today’s decision means there is no end in sight, ”continued Mme Northup.
All of the Supreme Court justices, except the ultra-conservative Clarence Thomas, have paved the way for challenging Texas law to federal courts. But a majority of five conservative judges has ruled out possible prosecution of many Texas officials, including the attorney general, judges and state court clerks. Only officials authorized to take disciplinary action against abortion clinics can be prosecuted.
They are four in number.
The heirs of John C. Calhoun
It was the third time that the Supreme Court declined to block Texas law. The authority had refused to do so for the first time on the day of its entry into force, on 1er last September.
As was the case in September, progressive judge Sonia Sotomayor expressed her dissent by sparing neither Texas lawmakers nor her colleagues on the Supreme Court.
Referring to women in Texas who cannot afford to travel to another state to get an abortion, she wrote: “Their only alternative is to bring unwanted pregnancies to term or to attempt voluntary abortions. outside the medical system. ”
The court should have put an end to this madness months ago, before the SB 8 law came into force. She failed to do so then, and she still fails today.
– Sonia Sotomayor, progressive judge
In a fiery passage of her dissent, the Bronx magistrate criticized members of the Court’s conservative bloc for playing into the hands of politicians who are now adopting tactics comparable to those of John Calhoun, a great defender of the slavery in the XIXe century.
“It’s a brazen challenge to our federal structure,” she wrote of Texas law. It echoes the philosophy of John C. Calhoun, a vocal defender of the slave South, who insisted that states had the right to “veto” or “overturn” any federal law with which they were. at variance. “
By signing the majority opinion, Conservative Judge Neil Gorsuch ignored Judge Sotomayor’s harshest attacks. He clarified that the Supreme Court’s decision was procedural in nature, nothing more.
“In this preliminary case, the Court is not seized of the final substantive question – namely whether Law SB 8 is in conformity with the Federal Constitution. The wisdom of SB 8 as public policy is also not on the agenda. ”
The other law on abortion
The pro-choicers had another reason to be pessimistic about the Supreme Court ruling. At the end of June or the beginning of July, this one will render a decision on another law on abortion, that of Mississippi, which could render the Texas question completely irrelevant.
Debated in early December in the Supreme Court, Mississippi law prohibits most abortions after the 15the week of pregnancy. In its long-awaited decision, the Supreme Court could fulfill the great dream of the conservative and Christian right by overturning the “Roe v. Wade ”. Such a decision would put an end to any debate regarding Texas law.
Another possible scenario is that a Conservative majority could preserve the “Roe v. Wade ”while questioning the criterion of fetal viability. In doing so, she could not only validate Mississippi law, but possibly Texas law as well.
Meanwhile, abortion opponents in Texas have greeted Friday’s Supreme Court decision much more favorably than their opponents.
“We are encouraged that the court has shown judicial restraint over the past 100 days, as well as today when it has not blocked the law,” said John Seago, legislative director of the Right to Life organization. “As long as this saving law continues in Texas, we will see unborn children and women continue to be protected in Texas. ”