The Supreme Court of the United States, leaning to the right on behalf of Donald Trump, hears a case this Wednesday that could set abortion rights back 50 years in the country.
The high court is examining a Mississippi law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy and must make its decision known next spring.
As a sign of the enormous repercussion of this case, hundreds of protesters gathered early in front of the temple of American law, gathering in two rival groups in the middle of an electric environment.
Defenders of the procedure manifested by displaying messages such as “Abortion is health.”
While anti-rights groups, who oppose the termination of pregnancy, showed their great hopes of ending the jurisprudence that established in 1973 the caso “Roe vs. Wade”, after 50 years of struggle.
In a landmark decision, the high court held in that case that access to abortion is a woman’s constitutional right, repealing state laws that restricted the procedure.
And in a 1992 ruling, in the case “Planned Parenthood v. Casey”, the Supreme Court guaranteed the right to interrupt the pregnancy until the fetus was viable outside the uterus, something that occurs between 22 and 24 weeks of gestation. .
However, those rulings did not end conservative and religious opposition to abortion, and anti-abortion activists believe their time has come to an end after years of political and legal battles.
“We recognize the magnitude of what we are asking for,” Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch wrote in The Washington Post. He added that it is time to correct the “mistake” made by the Supreme Court in 1973.
“We hope and pray that this decision of the Supreme Court may be a historic turning point for the protection of the most vulnerable,” said the anti-abortion group “March for Life”.
Mississippi law of 2018 prohibits abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy and does not make any exceptions for rape or incest. It was blocked as unconstitutional in lower courts until it ended up in the Supreme Court.
By simply agreeing to hear the case, the court indicates its willingness to review previous rulings, at least as far as “feasibility” is concerned.
But Mississippi, a conservative biblical belt state, is calling for the high court to go even further and overturn the “Roe vs. Wade” ruling.
“Nothing in the constitutional text, structure, history or tradition supports the right to abortion,” argued the state in a brief presented to the court.
“Deep intrusion”
Mississippi has received backing from 18 other Republican-led states, hundreds of legislators, the Catholic Church and anti-abortion groups, some of which have put millions of dollars into publicity campaigns.
The anti-abortion camp was boosted by the entry into the Supreme Court of three magistrates during the presidential administration of Trump (2017-2021), tipping the balance in favor of the conservative side with a 6-3 majority.
Two of Trump’s appointed judges replaced abortion rights advocates: Anthony Kennedy was replaced by Brett Kavanaugh and the late feminist Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Amy Coney Barrett, a devout Catholic.
The impact of the new justices became apparent on Sept. 1 when the Supreme Court rejected a request to block a Texas law prohibiting abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.
Julie Rikelman, a lawyer with the Center for Reproductive Rights, who will defend the case in court, believes that if judges uphold Mississippi law “it would be possible for states to ban abortion at virtually any time during pregnancy.”
“If the court upholds the ban … it is annulling Roe and Casey, even if the decision does not mention those words,” he warned.
Pro-abortion activists, medical associations, women’s rights and civil rights groups reported to the court along with hundreds of Democratic lawmakers and some 500 top athletes, including soccer star Megan Rapinoe.
“Forcing a woman to continue a pregnancy against her will is a profound intrusion on her autonomy, her physical integrity and her egalitarian position in society,” the Justice Department warned in a brief to the court.
The magistrates will have until June to make a decision.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx