In America, a woman no longer has the freedom to terminate a pregnancy. The Supreme Court with a decision overturning a fundamental right rooted in the United States for 50 years has overturned the sentence that guarantees women the right to abort. A step back in time and rights: the historic Roe v. Wade with whom in 1973 the same Court had recognized the right of the Texan woman Norma McCorvey to terminate the pregnancy. “Abortion presents a profound moral question. And the Constitution does not confer the right to abortion.” This is what we read in the sentence. The decision was made by a divided court, with 6 votes in favor and 3 against, the liberal judges Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan e Stephen Breyer. “Sadly, many women have lost fundamental constitutional protection today. We disagree.” All three judges appointed by former President Donald Trump during his mandate they voted for the abolition of the sentence.
The case
The decision was made in the case “Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization“, in which judges upheld Mississippi law prohibiting termination of pregnancy after 15 weeks. The only remaining clinic in the state to offer abortion was appealed. A draft leaked in recent weeks (drafted by Judge Samuel Alito, dating back to February and later confirmed as authentic by the court) had indicated that the majority of the ‘wise’ were in favor of overturning the Roe v Wade, sparking widespread controversy and protests in the US. Alito who writes in the device “Roe vs Wade was blatantly wrong from the start. His reasoning – he adds – was exceptionally weak, and the decision had damaging consequences.
What happens now
Now, therefore, individual states will be free to apply their laws on the matter. We therefore return to the years preceding the sentence: when abortion was regulated by each state. In more than half the abortion was considered a crime, so it could not be practiced under any circumstances. In over 10 states it was only legal if it posed a danger to the woman, in case of rape, incest or fetal malformations.
Reactions
Even before the release of the official decision, shortly after 10 am local time, hundreds of people, mostly women, gathered to protest in front of the building that houses the largest American legal body. And the main organizations pro choice they released a statement in which they denounce “every tactic and threat of groups that use destruction and violence as a means, they do not speak for us, our supporters, our communities and our movement”, reads the Planned Parenthood statement. Naral Pro-Choice America and Liberate Abortion Campaign. “We are committed to protecting and expanding access to abortion and reproductive freedom through peaceful and non-violent activism,” they conclude. The reaction of the Republicans is different. The leader of the group in the House, Kevin McCarthypludes to the decision “that saves lives”.
Obama accuses: “Abortion now depends on whims, the freedom of millions of people attacked”
“Today the Supreme Court has not only overturned nearly 50 years of precedent, it has relegated the most intensely personal decision anyone can make to the whims of politicians and ideologues, attacking the essential freedoms of millions of people.” Thus the former president of the United States Barack Obama in a tweet, his first reaction to the sentence that cancels the right to abortion.