American women have been allowed to terminate unwanted pregnancies for decades. Conservatives have been fighting it for just as long. With the dispute over the new abortion law in Texas, the question ends up in the Supreme Court again. Everything is at stake for both sides.
In the United States, the Supreme Court will take care of one of the most controversial issues in the country from next Monday: the right to abortion. The reason is a new law in Texas that makes it virtually impossible for women to have an abortion. According to this, only abortions should be legal before the heartbeat of the fetus can be determined. This is the case from around the sixth week of pregnancy, i.e. at a time when women often do not even know that they are pregnant. Heavy fines for anyone involved in an abortion, even taxi drivers taking a woman to a clinic, are intended to be a deterrent.
Civil rights activists are outraged. The US Constitution actually allows abortions in the first trimester of pregnancy without restrictions. Thereafter, restrictions on this right by the states are possible. Abortions may only be completely prohibited from the point in time at which the babies would be viable, i.e. between the 22nd and 24th week. The Supreme Court decided in 1973 in the lighthouse case “Roe versus Wade”, which continues to dominate the debate to this day. Since then, women in the United States have had a constitutional right to abortion. This makes US law more liberal than German Paragraph 218, for example. In this country, abortions are normally only possible up to the 12th week after consultation and are not a basic right, but only “free of punishment”.
The question now in the United States is how the constitutional right to abortion and the strict Texas law are supposed to fit together. Because even in the USA, the laws of the federal states must be in accordance with the constitution. Because of this, the Texas law with its six-week limit was immediately challenged. It’s not unusual. Time and again, the conservative and religious states from the south and the Midwest try to enact stricter laws. But you must not violate “Roe versus Wade”. Which is why conservatives are trying to abolish the resulting right to abortion.
At least $ 10,000 reward
The debate has been revolving around the same convictions and arguments for decades and in the USA has long taken on the character of a cultural war between conservatives and liberals. Anyone who, as a Christian, sees in the unborn baby a life created by God with a soul, will hardly be dissuaded from wanting to protect it. But can women be told what happens to their bodies? Isn’t it a question of emancipation that male politicians or clerics do not decide what women are allowed to do?
There is also the question of whether a ban on abortions will prevent them at all. Because, despite the prohibition, there has always been an abortion in secret. But then possibly with a high medical risk on your own or with untrained helpers. The knitting needle is the sad symbol of these times. It is also known that women who can afford it travel to where abortions are legal and safe. The question of legal abortions also has a social component. These trade-offs have sparked heated debates in many countries – and the enabling of conditional abortions. In the United States, by the way, a majority is in favor of the right to abortion.
The Texan “heartbeat law” is also a special case because it comes close to a total ban. Because abortions are therefore not even allowed if a woman has been raped, if there is incest or if the fetus is terminally ill. In many countries this is something like the minimum consensus on abortion issues.
The law enforcement regime also caused horror among civil rights activists. Anyone can sue people involved in abortions, if not the woman herself. If the “guilt” is proven, the defendant must pay the prosecutor at least $ 10,000 plus legal costs – even if the plaintiff suffered no harm from the abortion. So the law encourages Texans and other Americans, some even say: all people in the world to be bounty hunters.
That is exactly a very central point. Because at the same time the public prosecutor’s office is expressly forbidden to take action against abortions of their own accord. That sounds strange, but it is exactly the trick the Texas government is using to protect the law from being banned by the Supreme Court. Because in lawsuits against possibly unconstitutional laws, the judicial officers of a state are usually indicted. If successful, they will then be prohibited from preventing women citizens from exercising their constitutional rights. With the legal trick, it remains to be seen whether this is even possible. It’s like a game of cat and mouse.
Another case from Mississippi
Texas has thus gained time, as courts have been puzzling over how to deal with this strange rule for the past two months. A constitutional judge appointed by the Democrats protested against the fact that her colleagues were letting the law in force despite its “obvious unconstitutionality”. To the horror of civil rights activists, however, the Supreme Court failed to put the law on hold pending final clarification. Many attribute this to the fact that six of the nine constitutional judges are conservative and only three are considered liberal – which has been the case since Donald Trump’s presidency, who was allowed to appoint three new judges. The court decided, unusually quickly, on November 1st, to review the law.
However, it is expressly not about the question of whether the law is constitutional. Specifically, the judges want to review whether Texas can prohibit prosecutors from enforcing the law to prevent a lawsuit against the law. So, in short, whether the trick of using bounty hunters to prosecute prosecutors is legitimate. In addition, it should be about the question of whether the federal government, currently the Biden administration, may complain against the law. If so, lower courts could stop the law. How long the Supreme Court takes is open. A decision would have a signal effect. Should the judges bless the Texas law, other conservative states are likely to follow suit.
The next case of this kind is due in December. Then the Supreme Court decides on an abortion law from Mississippi, which forbids abortions almost completely after 15 weeks – and thus also clearly violates the right to abortion. While Texas is playing hide and seek with the Supreme Court, observers see this case as a frontal attack on “Roe versus Wade”. If that succeeds, it could be the end of nationwide abortion law. Without any trickery.