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Abortion rights supporters mobilized across the United States on Saturday in the second day of protests against the Supreme Court’s shattering decision, as conservative states begin to ban abortions.
The country is experiencing a new polarization, between the states that are already denying the right to abortion (or preparing to do so), and those that allow it, after the highest court reversed its emblematic “Roe v. Wade” ruling, that since 1973 guaranteed the right of American women to the voluntary interruption of pregnancy. Now, the choice of whether or not to ban abortions will fall to the states.
After protests that lasted late into the night on Friday, several hundred people returned to the streets on Saturday, particularly in Washington, in front of the fenced headquarters of the Supreme Court of Justice. “War on Women, Who’s Next?” and “No womb, no opinion,” read some of the banners unfurled by protesters. “What happened yesterday is unspeakable and disgusting,” said Mia Stagner, 19, a political science major at the university. “Forcing a woman to be a mother is not something that should be done,” she added.
Similar demonstrations were also taking place in Los Angeles, one aimed at city hall and the other at the federal courthouse, and in dozens of cities across the country. At least eight right-leaning states have already imposed abortion bans, and a similar number will follow suit in the coming weeks following the court’s decision, which drew criticism even from some of America’s closest allies around the world. . Many fear the Supreme Court, which since the Trump administration has been largely conservative in composition, will now focus on same-sex marriage rights and contraception.
President Joe Biden, who has also expressed concern that the court will not stop at abortion, spoke out again on Saturday against the “shocking” ruling by the highest court. “I know how painful and devastating this decision is for many Americans,” he said at the White House. In states that severely restrict or ban and criminalize abortions, women will have to continue their pregnancy, have a clandestine abortion, obtain abortion pills, or travel to another state where abortion is still legal.
– Nightmare –
“Unfortunately, we are going to see some nightmare scenarios,” Biden spokeswoman Karine Jean Pierre told reporters on Air Force One, which is flying the president to Europe for G7 and NATO summits. “This is not a hypothesis,” she commented. Most of the mobilizations on Friday passed without incident, although police fired tear gas at protesters in Phoenix, Arizona, and in the city of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a pickup truck drove through a group of protesters and ran over a woman. woman.
On Saturday in Washington, the demonstrations were again mostly peaceful, except for some shouting matches between defenders and opponents of the right to abortion. Carolyn Keller, 57, who traveled from New Jersey, said she was enraged by the ruling, warning: “They’re coming after women. They’re coming after the LGBT community and contraception.” “Abortion is not a personal choice, it involves two people and unfortunately that choice ends with the end of someone’s life,” she told AFP Savannah Craven, who is absolutely opposed to abortion.
For the religious right, Friday’s ruling represents a victory, but its ultimate goal is much more ambitious: to have abortion banned throughout the country. That goal is now within reach in about two dozen states. Missouri was the first to ban the procedure on Friday, in all cases, and was joined by seven others on Saturday morning: Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Utah. Anticipating an influx of patients, several Democratic-led states have already taken steps to make abortion easier, with three of them (California, Oregon and Washington) releasing a common statement defending access to these interventions.
But travel is expensive and the Supreme Court’s decision will further penalize poor or single-parent women, who are overrepresented among black and Hispanic minorities, abortion rights advocates say. Centers that perform abortions reported an increase in donations received after the decision of the Supreme Court. The organization Planned Parenthood, which militates in favor of the right to abortion, said on Saturday in a statement to AFP that it saw the donations it normally receives in a day multiply by 40. “This is just the beginning and we will not back down,” said Kelley Robinson, vice president of that association.
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