A tragic throwback. This Friday, June 24, the US Supreme Court – the highest court in the country with a conservative majority – revoked the judgment Roe v. wadeensuring and protecting since 1973 the right of women to abort freely.
If this decision does not make voluntary terminations of pregnancy illegal, it nevertheless returns the country to the situation in force nearly half a century ago: each state was then free to prohibit or authorize abortionswithout even making exceptions for rape or incest.
“The Constitution makes no reference to abortion and none of its articles implicitly protects this right.“wrote Judge Samuel Alito on behalf of the conservative majority. Roe v. Wade”was totally unfounded from the start” and “must be canceled“.”It’s time to return the issue of abortion to the elected representatives of the people“, he continues.
In recent years, states had already adopted very restrictive laws regarding abortion: for example, Louisiana had until then provided up to 10 years in prison for health professionals performing abortion. 13 States had also put in place so-called “zombie” or “trigger” laws, that is, they prohibited abortion but could not come into force until the final decision of the Supreme Court. A dozen more states could follow with full or partial bans. In the coming weeks, many clinics performing abortions could also be permanently closed.
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