A Louisiana judge temporarily suspended, Monday, June 27, the laws prohibiting women in this state from having an abortion, adding to the confusion in the United States since the reversal of the Supreme Court on the subject.
The high court on Friday annulled the Roe v Wade judgment which for nearly fifty years had guaranteed the right of American women to terminate their pregnancy, giving states the freedom to ban abortions. Several had immediately hastened to declare voluntary terminations of pregnancy (abortion) illegal on their territory, relying in particular on laws that have remained dormant so far. Others intend to reduce the delays for abortion.
But the legal counter-offensive was quick, with complaints filed in state courts rather than federal justice. In Louisiana, a clinic and medical students have attacked the three laws banning abortions, arguing that they are too “waves” since they do not clearly specify the exceptions or associated penalties. Judge Robin Giarrusso on Monday blocked those laws until a July 8 hearing.
Abortion remains legal in Mississippi. We will continue to work to ensure that every Mississippian can make their o… https://t.co/7Z7W4ot0Sn
“Abortions can resume in Louisiana”immediately tweeted the Center for Reproductive Rights, which represented the plaintiffs. “Every day a clinic is open can make a difference in someone’s life”, added its president Nancy Northup in a press release. In Mississippi, too, abortion is still legal.
Only temporary decisions
Those victories may only be short-lived, with Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry promising “to do whatever is in [son] power to ensure that laws protecting unborn children come into effect”. Comparable battles are being played out across the country. In Utah, a court also temporarily suspended the ban on abortion, following a complaint filed by the powerful family planning association Planned Parenthood.
This represents “A victory, but it’s only the first step in what will undoubtedly be a long and difficult fight”, commented the association, which had initiated these proceedings on the grounds that the ban on abortion violates, according to it, the Constitution of the State. The same argument is advanced in Florida by the detractors of a law reducing to fifteen weeks the legal deadline for an abortion, which must come into effect on Friday.
Other procedures take place in Ohio, Kentucky, Idaho, Texas or even Mississippi. This guerrilla should delay the deadline but, according to the Guttmacher Institute, half of the States, especially in the South and the conservative and religious center, should in the more or less long term ban abortions on their soil.