The United States Supreme Court struck down the protection of the right to abortion

On June 24, the United States Supreme Court took a surprising turn after annulling the landmark Roe v. Wade that ruled since 1973, when abortion was recognized as a constitutional right of women and made it legal throughout the country.

This means a resounding victory for the interests of Republicans and religious conservatives in states where it is intended to limit or prohibit the voluntary termination of pregnancy.

With this repeal, each of the country’s 50 jurisdictions will be able to restrict abortion.

The decision was settled with a majority of 6 to 3. Those who voted in favor of suppressing the consideration of abortion as a right, affirmed that it does not correspond with “history or tradition” in the United States.

The judges held that the resolution of the emblematic case Roe v. Wade was incorrectly executed because the National Constitution does not specifically mention the right to abortion.

“It is time to abide by the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the elected representatives of citizens,” boasts the ruling written by Judge Samuel Alito. The same justification was expressed in his draft that was leaked last May.

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In his brief, Alito described the Roe v. Wade as “offensively incorrect” and that it went against the Constitution itself. “Roe was terribly wrong from the start,” he said.

“His reasoning was exceptionally weak and the decision has had damaging consequences,” he added.

In addition to overturning the ruling in the case that was in effect 49 years ago, it also overturned the Planned Parenthood vs. Casey, of 1992, which ratified the protection of abortion, but allowed the states to implement regulations to the process. Alito said that ruling “perpetuated” the errors.

“Roe and Casey, far from achieving a national agreement on the issue of abortion, inflamed the debate and deepened the division,” Alito hammered.

For their part, the three progressive judges followed logic and voted against the court’s decision. In a joint opinion, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan lamented “especially for the millions of women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional right.”

The Supreme Court deepened its course to the right during the administration of Republican Donald Trump. The former president promised in his 2016 campaign that he would appoint judges to go against Roe.

In his term, he elevated three Conservative justices, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, who gave a 6-3 majority over the Liberals.

Since 2018, the court has suffered the departure of two abortion advocates, conservative Anthony Kennedy and liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The former retired that same year and was replaced by Kavanaugh; the second died in 2020 and was replaced by Coney Barrett.

While Gorsuch was sworn in in 2017 by the late Antonin Scalia, another conservative who was also anti-law.

Biden calls Supreme Court decision ‘tragic mistake’

The president of the United States harshly criticized the ruling of the highest court that annuls the sentence of the Roe vs. Wade and stated that “It is a sad day for the Court and for the country.”

In the speech delivered from the White House, the president also said that from now on “the lives of American women are at risk” and that he was going back 150 years.

While he assured that he will fight for women’s reproductive rights and urged voters to elect legislators to Congress who advocate abortion as a universal and legitimate aspect.

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For her part, the Democratic leader in the Lower House, Nancy Pelosi, said that this was a “slap and an insult” for women. The court’s decision was called “cruel, scandalous and disheartening”.

On the other side, former President Trump made statements to the ‘Fox’ network celebrating the annulment of Roe. He stressed that “it returns to the States” the decision of abortion, “the place where they should be.”

The Vatican also reacted favorably to the Supreme Court ruling, which “challenges the entire world,” he noted.

The landscape of abortion in the United States

With the ruling executed this Friday, each of the 50 internal administrations of the North American country may or may not totally prohibit the possibility of intervening during the gestation process.

For example, one of the last antecedents that the social controversy went through was in Mississippi, where the Republicans enacted a law that denied abortion after 15 weeks, long before 24, the moment at which the procedure is considered viable. However, the Mississippi law was blocked for violating current regulations.

Estimates indicate that the map of the United States will most likely be divided in two, between those who enable it or those who will restrict it.

By case, there are 26 states that are outlined to deny abortion. Of those, half have the ‘trigger laws’ set to establish the ban if Roe v. Wade.

Archive: America’s Abortion Rights Under Threat

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On the other hand, more than a dozen liberal states already have legislation that supports the termination of pregnancy.

A significant number of women – more than 30 million – will have reduced options after today’s ruling. They will be able to move to a territory where it is considered legal, buy abortion pills -which surely enter the ‘red list’ of those places that reject abortion- or perform it clandestinely, a dangerous method that threatens the life of the fetus and the pregnant woman. .

‘Roe versus Wade’, the historic ruling that protected abortion

The sentence of the emblematic case of 1973 was the guarantor to preserve the interruption of pregnancy as a constitutional legitimation. It recognized that the right to personal privacy established by the United States Constitution included the woman’s ability to discontinue pregnancy.

In 1992, the litigation known as ‘Planned Parenthood versus Casey’ was carried out, which served to ratify abortion, although not totally, but rather gave rise to the states being able to establish regulations on the process, as long as they did not do so. restrict.

Based on this possibility, conservative jurisdictions enacted laws to partially curtail the right, a practice that has become more frequent in recent years.

Prior to the Roe dossier, a large number of states penalized the practice of abortion or, at a minimum, branded it illegal. Since its enactment, overturning the sentence in the case has been the goal of officials and religious conservatives.

With EFE, Reuters and AFP