Night to Tuesday published Politico a note from the US Supreme Court indicating that the conservative majority among the US Supreme Court judges will remove the federal abortion law.
The news made Norway’s Minister of Culture and Gender Equality Anette Trettebergstuen (Labor Party) shudder on Thursday morning.
– It’s awful. I shuddered when I heard it on the morning news early today. If you remove the constitutional protection of abortion rights and leave it up to the states to decide this politically, it is bad news for everyone who is concerned about fundamental rights and women’s right to decide for themselves, says Trettebergstuen to Dagbladet and continues:
– The motive behind this is to tighten abortion rights. This is the direction the wind is blowing in very many states in the United States, which will have major consequences for women’s right to decide over their own bodies in North America. This will be a huge setback and is part of a serious trend where women’s basic human rights and reproductive rights are going in the wrong direction.
– How did you experience it when you heard the news early today?
– It went cold down my back. This leak calls for a fight for human rights groups and women’s organizations. I hope that people now have the opportunity to say clearly what they think about this.
MINISTER OF CULTURE AND GENDER EQUALITY: Anette Trettebergstuen (Labor Party). Photo: Nina Hansen / Dagbladet
sea view
Raises eyebrows
The leaked note is attracting attention in the United States. On Tuesday night, there was a spontaneous demonstration outside the Supreme Court building in Washington DC.
It is the Supreme Court decision in the so-called «Roe vs. The Wade »case from 1973 which ensures a federal abortion right in the USA. This right was confirmed in a Supreme Court decision from 1992. In a note, which is currently considered a first draft that can later be changed, the conservative majority among Supreme Court judges in the United States states that they believe that these decisions must now be overridden.
Trettebergstuen warns of a possible domino effect.
– The United States is a great power that has a great influence on the rest of the world. If the United States goes back now, it will legitimize for many other countries to do the same. It can have a very serious domino effect. This is part of a series of setbacks for gender equality worldwide, and it is serious for both us and other women outside the United States.
– Seems relatively dramatic
Possible abortion bans
If the federal abortion law is removed, it could open the door for US states to impose a total ban on abortion, something that the federal abortion law has so far prevented.
Law professor Geir Stenseth at the University of Oslo has told Dagbladet that some states have already passed such laws, which can not be implemented at present because they violate the US Constitution.
– But if the Supreme Court should turn around, they can be implemented more or less immediately, Stenseth said, and pointed out that so far it is only a matter of a draft, and that it remains to be seen what the judges land on.
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