World Weekly丨The overturned ruling on abortion rights in the United States is Roy’s “backward” run or America’s backwardness?
This week, the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on abortion rights continued to ferment. On June 24, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision. “The Guardian” said that a single sentence made the abortion rights enjoyed by American women for nearly 50 years disappeared overnight. Even US President Biden admitted, “This is a tragedy for the United States, a mistake made by the Supreme Court, and it has set the United States back 150 years.” In the view of the BBC, this ruling is like a major earthquake , its impact is just beginning.
On June 30, US President Biden encountered an embarrassing question from reporters.
Reporter: “America is back” was your motto at your first NATO summit last year. Now the G7 summit is in Germany, where inflation is hitting new records after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned constitutional protections for abortion and after the shootings in Buffalo and Texas. The latest polling this week shows that 85% of Americans think America is heading in the wrong direction, how are you going to explain that to people, including some of the leaders you met this week, who think what’s happening in the U.S. ( show) that the US is going backwards.
US President Biden: One thing that has been destabilizing for a long time is the outrageous decision of the US Supreme Court, which not only overturned Roe v. Wade, but also fundamentally challenged the right to privacy. America’s “leading” role in human rights and privacy is a mistake.
US staged abortion rights farce, G7 allies draw a line
Bloomberg pointed out that this abortion rights farce in the United States has cast a shadow over Biden’s G7 trip. Before the meeting with Biden, Western “allies” have drawn a line with the United States on this issue.
French President Emmanuel Macron said: “Abortion is a fundamental right of all women. It must be protected. I want to express my solidarity with women whose freedoms have been undermined by the United States Supreme Court.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said: “The news coming out of the United States is shocking. My sympathies go out to the millions of American women who will now lose their legal right to abortion. I can’t imagine the fear and anger you feel right now.”
UK PM Johnson: I have to tell you, I think this is a huge step backwards.
U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade case
One night seems to “rewind 50 years”
On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade by a vote of 5:4.
A majority of conservative justices argue that the right to abortion is not a constitutional right, meaning U.S. states are given discretion in regulating abortion.
According to CNN, with the final decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, 26 of the 50 states in the United States will further ban or restrict abortion, which will affect about 36 million women of reproductive age. Thirteen of these states activated “trigger laws” on the 24th, that is, the abortion ban will be enforced from the moment the Supreme Court decision is announced.
In Texas, the conservative stronghold of Roe v. Wade 50 years ago, Republican Attorney General Paxton immediately outlawed abortion. The news came as women who were waiting for abortions at the Texas Family Planning Center were devastated.
Texans: I feel like my country doesn’t care about me, I feel like they want me to die and not let me make my own decisions.
In stark contrast to conservative states, traditional Democratic states such as California and New York state have expressed that they will open their arms to welcome women from out of state to seek “abortion asylum” in their own state.
California Attorney General Bonta: Abortion and reproductive health care are completely legal in California, and you will be fully protected in California.
Google, Microsoft, Netflix and other technology companies located in the western United States even said that if the abortion rights of out-of-state company employees and their families are restricted by local laws, the companies will cover their abortion travel expenses to and from California and pay other subsidies.
The Guttmacher Institute, an American research group, said the number of women traveling to California is expected to surge 30-fold this year.
This is reminiscent of the United States before 1973. At the Dallas airport in Texas, on the weekly flight to California, there are usually dozens of female passengers preparing for abortion.
The BBC can’t help but sigh: overnight the United States seems to have regressed 50 years ago. Today the United States seems to be divided in two, consisting of two very separate countries. The people of the two “tribes” have completely different values, beliefs and goals. And they are getting farther and farther apart from each other.
People who support abortion rights: Since I was born, I was taught in school that we grew up in a land of freedom, and this freedom is innate. Now I am angry and confused as to why my own body has lost this freedom.
People who support abortion rights: It doesn’t matter if you don’t agree with abortion, but that doesn’t mean you can take away people’s rights, it’s that simple.
Right to Life: We’re dancing on the graves of Roe v. Wade right now, it’s like D-Day, we’re going to be in Berlin. We will make all 50 states criminalize infanticide.
Demonstrations erupted in hundreds of U.S. cities after the Supreme Court’s verdict.
In New York City, tens of thousands of demonstrators paralyzed city traffic for hours; in Los Angeles, highways were closed for a time due to demonstrations. In Phoenix, Arizona, tens of thousands of people tried to storm the state capitol building, but SWAT teams used tear gas to disperse the demonstrators.
According to a national poll conducted by PBS in May this year, about 64% of the American people do not want the verdict of Roe v. Wade to be overturned. But among the nine justices on the Supreme Court, conservative justices nominated by Republican presidents make up the majority, a result that was long expected by the outside world.
The Guardian believes that the overturning of the “Roe v. Wade case” means that the political power of the United States has surpassed the constitutional rights of the people themselves.
The American leftist media “Jacobin” further pointed out that the US Supreme Court is experiencing a crisis of confidence. As a “beacon of democracy”, the Roe case was overturned in a short period of time simply because conservative judges in the Supreme Court had an absolute advantage in number. It is hard not to make the American people question whether the American judicial system is still independent of the government and In addition to the legislative system, it is still a political institution that has become deeply involved in ideological struggles.
The origin of “Roy v. Wade”
Before the 1970s, nearly 80% of white Americans believed in Christianity, mainly due to religious factors. Abortion was prohibited in 46 of the 50 states in the United States, of which 30 states did not allow any exceptions. This means that abortion is not allowed even in cases of rape or incest.
In “What’s the Use of Feminism,” British author Tabby Jackson Gee wrote: “In the 1960s, in the United States alone, 1 million women per year performed illegal abortions by botched backstreets. The abortion technician or the pregnant woman herself.”
In 1969, Norma McCorvey, a 21-year-old waitress in Texas, became pregnant unexpectedly. She had a meager salary and no fixed place to live. She had no ability to raise her children and had to choose an abortion.
She first went to an underground abortion clinic in Dallas, where Norma fled in fright when she saw the lights were dim and the floor was covered with cockroaches.
In March 1970, Norma, using the pseudonym Jane Roe, with the help of recent graduate lawyer Sarah Weddington, charged the district attorney responsible for enforcing abortion laws in Dallas County, Texas. Officer Henry Wade filed a lawsuit, titled Roe v. Wade.
Finally, after three years, the “Roy v. Wade case” was appealed all the way to the US Supreme Court.
Roy’s attorney Sarah Waddington: At that time, a justice asked me, when do you think human life begins? I replied “Dear Judge, there is no need for us to discuss this precise moment, there is no answer to this question, different religions have different answers to this question, but there is no law that defines when the fetus becomes human. So the question is, Who can make that decision, the woman or the government?” I don’t think it’s a decision that the government can make.
The American Public Television Network believes that in the context of the times at that time, the partisanship in the United States was not obvious. Even when the number of conservative justices was dominant at that time, the Supreme Court still reviewed the case from a social and medical point of view. make a ruling.
US News: Good evening, the Supreme Court today ruled that the right to abortion is constitutional in a landmark decision. The court voted 7-2, with Justices White and Lancaster dissenting from the ruling. The decision made abortion a private matter, stipulating that states could not legislate to ban abortions except in the final months of pregnancy (the third trimester).
At that time, Roy’s victory once became a model for safeguarding women’s rights in the world.
In the judgment, it is clearly pointed out that the right to abortion is a fundamental right and, like the right to privacy, is protected by the Constitution.
Abortion rights overturned, America’s poorest women most affected
Going back 50 years, in the opinion of the Wall Street Journal, the United States, as a case law country, is now overturning the judgment of the Federal Supreme Court 50 years ago, which is a rare move.
“Wall Street Journal” legal commentator Blevin: It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of the trial. The court made a 180-degree turn and completely overturned the earlier judgment. 50 years ago, (the Supreme Court) recognized (abortion is) constitutional rights and privacy rights, and 50 years later it said “we were wrong before”.
The BBC pointed out that the constitution has not changed word by word, and what caused Roy to “fall” is the political environment that has become increasingly polarized in the United States in recent decades.
According to the BBC, from 1992 to 2010, states in the United States introduced more than 700 local regulations restricting abortion, which directly led to the closure of hundreds of family planning clinics across the United States.
In the opinion of legal professionals, if women in conservative states with certain economic conditions can still go to another place to receive abortions, the “Roy case” will be overturned, and the most affected are undoubtedly those poor women at the bottom, especially minority women.
Clarksdale, located in southern Mississippi, is one of the poorest areas in Mississippi, where more than 80% of the population is African American.
According to PBS, more than one-third of the urban population here lives below the U.S. poverty line. The infant mortality rate here is twice the national average, and 75 percent of babies born here are born to single mothers, many of them teenagers.
As one of the most conservative states on abortion, until this year, there was only one family planning center in the entire state of Mississippi.
Clarksdale is about a three-hour drive from the only family planning center, and many black women simply do not have the conditions to go.
Clarksdale resident Turner: In the Mississippi Delta, (abortion) is unrealistic, there is no such thing here, and we don’t have such a clinic here. I know young girls who have had three or four children because they can’t afford an abortion, and if you don’t have money, if you live on bailouts or health care, you can only live with that, you have to face the child.
In 2002, the Mississippi state government banned government funds from being used to pay for abortions.
Former Mississippi Lieutenant Governor Tucker: Not a penny of conservative state money (which can’t be spent on abortion), taxpayer money can’t be used to fund abortion, not a penny can be used to fund abortion. This is sending a strong message to the entire state and the nation, for other states to use as a reference to pass similar legislation (restricting abortion).
White, director of the Clarksdale Public Health Station: These women really have no choice, we (the state government) make the decision for them, and it is no different from Roe v. Wade before. Neither has changed.
Meanwhile, the only family planning clinic in Mississippi has long been besieged by people who support the right to life.
“Old scars” fester again under U.S. political polarization
From the late 1990s, in many parts of the United States, the debate on abortion rights began to become extreme.
The United States, which highly advocates the so-called “individual freedom of choice” on epidemic prevention issues such as masks and vaccinations, has made serious regressions in some internationally recognized basic human rights.
The American Public Television Network pointed out that, in fact, abortion rights, like gun issues, racial issues, immigration issues and many other chronic ailments in American society, are not frozen in a day. Against the backdrop of political polarization in the United States, various “old scars” that have never healed are festering again.
It’s not surprising that Roy ran “down”.
On June 25, local time, former US President Trump appeared at a campaign rally for the Republican midterm elections to celebrate the victory of the Federal Supreme Court’s decision the day before.
The BBC believes that it was the three conservative justices (Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Barrett) nominated during Trump’s presidency that allowed “Roe v. Wade” to be overturned. It’s also seen as one of the biggest political legacies of Trump’s presidency.
Former US President Trump: I promised to nominate justices who dare to uphold the original meaning of the Constitution, who have honestly and faithfully interpreted the original meaning of the law when it was written.
After the audience shouted thanks to Trump, the “protagonist” of the campaign rally, the Illinois Republican Rep. Miller, who is seeking re-election, made a surprising speech.
Rep. Miller, R-Illinois: President Trump, on behalf of all the “Make America Great Again” patriots, I thank you for bringing this historic victory to white lives.
Although after the rally, Miller’s PR team came forward to clarify that the “white lives” claim was a slip of the tongue.
In fact, this is not the first time Miller has made racist remarks in public. On Jan. 6, 2021, the day of the riots on Capitol Hill, Mueller publicly praised Hitler’s remarks at a rally in Washington, D.C., in solidarity with Trump.
Rep. Miller, R-Illinois: Hitler was right about one thing, whoever owns the youth owns the future.
Four days after winning Trump’s platform, Miller won comfortably in his 15th district in Illinois. In Florida, another Republican freshman endorsed by Trump, Anna Luna, has expanded her lead over her opponent to 40 percent in this week’s primary.
Luna, the Republican candidate for the 13th District of Florida: We see this situation all over the country. When President Trump endorses, basically the approval rate can increase by 30% to 40%, because people know that I am Trump’s (endorsed) candidate, I’m an “America First” candidate.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump has endorsed 11 Republican candidates successively since the mid-term elections kicked off this year.
Maclean, Republican campaign strategist: Now Donald Trump’s endorsement, especially in the Republican primary, is literally the gold standard.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation believes that this heralds the return of the far-right values represented by “Trump Doctrine” in American society.
A new survey conducted by the Harvard Center for American Politics and Harris Polling for the US “Capitol Hill” shows that as of now, among the eight potential candidates for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, Trump is 57%. DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence came in second and third with 12 percent and 11 percent, respectively.
From the current point of view, no Republican candidate dares to publicly say “no” to Trump if he wants to win this year’s midterm elections.
After the Supreme Court’s verdict, many Republicans have expressed the hope that Republican voters will unite and pursue the victory to help the Republicans win both houses of Congress in the midterm elections.
Right now, Republicans need one more seat in the Senate and four more in the House of Representatives to get there.
Democrats also hope to use the public’s sentiment on the abortion issue to start a defensive counterattack.
Earlier on May 2 this year, a document obtained by POLITICO showed that a draft majority opinion drafted by conservative Justice Alito would “overturn Roe v. Wade.” Coincidentally, on May 3, the day after the documents were made public by the Politico News Network, many states across the United States ushered in the first primary elections for the midterm elections.
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: Women’s choice, reproductive freedom, on the November ballot
American people: Yes, abortion rights (on the midterm elections) have some impact, which is an important criterion for me to consider candidates. This is the way we have been in our life. Once progress has been regressed. I don’t know how long I can live, but I don’t like this regress. I still have grandchildren.
The “Wall Street Journal” believes that, compared with Democrats relying on female voters, Republicans have put the greatest treasure in the midterm elections on immigration.
In addition to abortion rights, container truck migrant death reignites dispute
According to the NBC report, at about 5:50 p.m. on June 27, next to the railroad tracks in the southern suburbs of San Antonio, Texas, a worker heard a faint cry for help from the interior of a truck container and then called the police. When police arrived at the scene and opened the door of the truck, they found “heaps of bodies”.
In the end, 53 people were suffocated to death, and 5 people were abandoned in the wilderness. Police said the truck containers were filled with “stowaways” from countries including Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras trying to enter the United States illegally.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security called the incident the deadliest human-smuggling incident in U.S. history.
At the time of the incident, Texas was experiencing a heat wave, with temperatures in the San Antonio area reaching nearly 40 degrees Celsius and high humidity. The investigation revealed that there was neither any water supply on the truck, nor any ventilation or air conditioning equipment in the vehicle.
After the mass smuggling death incident, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, attacked Biden for the first time, blaming the deadly incident on the Biden administration’s lax approach to border control.
According to USA Today, between October 2020 and September 2021, detentions of illegal immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border peaked at 1.7 million, the highest number since records began in 1960. In May alone, 240,000 illegal immigrants were detained, an increase of about a third from last year.
Associated Press: Historic high inflation swings midterm election results
The Associated Press analysis believes that the extent to which the Supreme Court’s decision affects the outcome of the midterm elections remains to be seen. Compared with abortion rights, the American people are still most concerned about the record inflation in the United States.
On July 1, according to a poll published by the FiveThirtyEight political website, Biden’s approval rate fell to a record low of 39.2%, which was lower than the level of his predecessor Trump at the same time. A poll on the same day by the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University showed that as many as 71% of respondents believed that Biden should not run for re-election.
According to a new poll released by the Associated Press-NORC Public Affairs Research Center at the end of June, up to 85% of respondents believe that the United States is on the wrong path. Seventy-nine percent of those surveyed believe the U.S. economy will get worse.
AP White House Correspondent Burke: This poll was conducted at a time when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, abortion rights lost constitutional protection, and we conducted the same poll when the Congressional riot hearings ; and when oil prices rise above $5 (a gallon); when Russia goes to war with Ukraine; Disagreement over and over again is affecting public perceptions of the country’s future prospects.
International organizations reaffirm reproductive rights as an important part of women’s rights
On June 24, Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, stated that the UN has repeatedly reiterated that reproductive rights are an important part of women’s rights and a basic principle of human rights upheld by international agreements, which has been reflected in the the laws of most countries in the world.
The U.S. Supreme Court and some local governments’ restrictions on women’s abortion rights have greatly damaged American women’s rights to privacy and personal safety and other basic human rights. Not only that, the United States is one of the few countries that has yet to ratify the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which is a violation of the basic human rights of its citizens.
In addition, the U.S. has the highest maternal mortality rate of any developed country, according to the WHO, and restricting abortion laws would result in higher infant and maternal mortality rates in those conservative states. Especially for low-income people, especially teens, people of color, immigrants and refugees, etc., they will be more affected by abortion restrictions.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: In light of the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, I would like to reiterate WHO’s position that all women should have the right to choose when it comes to their bodies and health , which is not negotiable.
“Capitol Hill” noted that just after the Supreme Court made an abortion right decision, Biden vowed to use all means to make the 1973 “Roe v. Wade” decision passed at the federal legal level. At the same time, several Republicans, including former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, announced that if the Republicans won both houses of Congress in the midterm elections, they would implement a comprehensive abortion ban in every state in the United States.
The BBC pointed out that the Supreme Court’s ruling has dropped a constitutional bomb on the already contradictory American society. Decades of disputes over abortion have now ignited a new round of war. And both parties seem to be seeing a “rehearsal” of the midterm elections amid a variety of opposing sentiments.
However, the basic rights that ordinary people should enjoy have become the victims of “split”.
The New York Times can’t help but ask worriedly: Is it Roy’s “backward” run or America’s backwardness, and what will be the next backwardness?