They will never leave women alone. The Supreme Court of the United States is preparing to overturn the historic judgment recognizing, for nearly half a century, the right to abortion. The leaked project is to be taken very seriously: we do not see how it could not be confirmed by this court with a clear conservative majority since the remodeling carried out by Donald Trump.
The fundamental right of women to terminate a pregnancy in the so-called country “of the free” can therefore be called into question. Women will be subject to the goodwill of the state in which they live and almost half of them are ready to tackle abortion. Not less. Simone de Beauvoir had however warned us: “Never forget that all it takes is a political, economic or religious crisis for women’s rights to be called into question. These rights are never acquired. You will have to remain vigilant throughout your life.” The Americans put forward the theory of backlash : every advance in women’s rights has been followed by a reactionary offensive, demonstrated in 1991 the feminist journalist Susan Faludi in an essay that is still relevant today.
The backlash, feminists have been waiting for it since MeToo in 2017. Here it is. But can’t we throw it back in their face? Between resilience and resistance, which word do we prefer? We will have to defend our rights at the ballot box. Joe Biden called for it, as early as the midterm elections in November. We will have to defend our rights in the street. As of Monday evening, hundreds of demonstrators massed in front of the temple of American law, facing the “pro-lifers”. They will have to be defended alongside associations whose importance is obvious in the face of such news. Reinstalling this balance of power is an imperative, in the United States, in Europe also where Ukrainian victims of rape are currently prevented from having access to abortion in Poland, but also elsewhere, everywhere.
They will never leave women alone. But we will never let them go back quietly.