Von Friday, December 10, the United States Supreme Court inflicted a setback on abortion rights defenders, by refusing to block a very restrictive Texas law on abortion. Since the 1er September, this prohibits the inhabitants of this vast state from terminating their pregnancy after six weeks. The high court did allow federal courts to intervene against the law, but clinics and doctors who perform abortions in Texas remain under threat of costly lawsuits if they intervene beyond this time limit.
With the ruling, the court’s strong conservative majority signaled that it was unwilling to defend the right to abortion, which it could even curtail in a few months in another case emanating from Mississippi. In the meantime, his ruling on Texas is “cruel, unfair, inhumane,” said Amy Hagstrom Miller, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which operates four clinics in the conservative southern state of the United States. “Our teams are desperate, scared, discouraged. Our patients do not understand why they are denied the care they need, ”she added at a press conference.
“GREAT VICTORY”
Democratic President Joe Biden is “very concerned” about the Supreme Court’s decision to leave the law in place, given its consequences “for the women of Texas, the country and the rule of law,” said his spokesperson Jen Psaki. “BIG WIN,” instead tweeted Texas Attorney General Republican Ken Paxton, who like other abortion opponents was pleased that the law remains in force. “It’s a victory for Texas and the pro-life movement,” said Republican State Senator Ted Cruz.
Texas prohibits women from having an abortion, even in cases of rape or incest, as soon as the embryo’s heartbeat is noticeable, around four weeks after conception, when most are still unaware that they are pregnant. Federal courts have in the past struck down a dozen comparable laws because they violate Supreme Court jurisprudence. The latter recognized in 1973, in its landmark judgment in Roe v. Wade, and reaffirmed in 1992, the right of American women to have an abortion as long as the fetus is not viable, that is to say around 22 to 24 weeks of pregnancy. But Texas has devised an exceptional device: its law entrusts citizens “exclusively” with the task of enforcing this prohibition, by encouraging them to sue in civil proceedings the people and organizations which help women to break it against the promise of 10,000. restitution dollars.
