The Biden administration announced it on Friday. She took the plunge, Monday, October 18, by announcing that she had formally asked the Supreme Court of the United States to block an extremely restrictive law on abortion in Texas. This law prohibits abortion as soon as the embryo’s heartbeat is detectable, i.e. around six weeks of pregnancy when most women are still unaware of their pregnancy, and does not provide for an exception in cases of incest or rape. .
The United States Supreme Court has guaranteed since 1973, with the iconic Roe decision vs Wade, the right of women to abort, and then specified that it applied as long as the fetus is not viable, that is to say around 22 weeks of pregnancy.
But the text of Texas provides for a unique device: it confides “Exclusively” it is up to citizens to ensure that the measure is respected by encouraging them to file a complaint against organizations or people who help women to have illegal abortions.
Judicial battle
The Supreme Court, where the Conservative judges have a majority, had already been seized for the first time and had therefore invoked these “New questions of procedure” to refuse, the 1er September, to block the entry into force of the law. The federal government then entered the legal arena, filing a lawsuit on its behalf against Texas.
The Supreme Court’s position in this case was seen as a ” right turn “ of the high court which has six conservative judges out of nine, including three appointed by Donald Trump. On October 2, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of America to defend the right to abortion.
On October 6, a trial judge suspended the law, pending a review on the merits. “This court will not allow this shocking deprivation of such an important right to continue one more day”, wrote federal judge Robert Pitman. Some clinics then resumed abortions beyond six weeks.
But Texas Attorney General Republican Ken Paxton appealed to New Orleans federal court, reputed to be one of the most conservative in the country, which ruled in her favor: two days later, she overturned Justice Pitman’s decision. The law thus remains in force for the moment as long as the procedure continues. The Justice Department is now asking the Supreme Court to overturn Justice Pitman’s ruling.
Half of American women could lose the right to abort
In recent years, laws comparable to that of Texas have been passed by a dozen other conservative states and struck down in court for violating this jurisprudence.
The Supreme Court is also due to examine this fall a Mississippi law that prohibits abortion after fifteen weeks of pregnancy, and could take the opportunity to write in black and white a reversal of its jurisprudence.
If the Court were to overturn the Roe decision vs Wade, every state would be free to ban or allow abortions. About 36 million women, in 26 states, or nearly half of American women of childbearing age, would likely lose the right to abort, according to a report by Planned Parenthood (family planning) published in early October.