This Saturday in the United States, from New York to Chicago via Austin and Los Angeles, some 400 processions are organized across the country to defend the right to abortion. The latter, even if it is supported by a majority of the population according to recent polls, has been a very divisive subject in society since the historic judgment “Roe v. Wade” of January 1973, which protects the right of American women to terminate their pregnancy… and which the Supreme Court of the United States is preparing to annul. If this draft judgment is adopted as is, it will grant American states the right to prohibit or authorize abortions.
Pending the judgment of the Court, which must intervene by the end of June, “we are prepared to face this moment, whether by demonstrating in the streets, by making requests to elected officials, whatever the cost” , said Sonja Spoo, an official of the feminist organization UltraViolet.
The Supreme Court steeped in conservatism
The ability to have an abortion is already restricted in 23 Republican-run states and others are awaiting the ruling of the Supreme Court, now firmly entrenched in conservatism, to in turn limit abortions. About 20 conservative states have already promised to make it illegal, some even in cases of rape or incest, which would force women to travel thousands of miles to have an abortion.
Since the revelations of the information site Politico concerning this planned arrest, groups – more or less dense – come every evening to shout their anger in front of the American temple of law, an imposing white marble building now protected by a fence.
“My body, my choice”-
And some demonstrators protest to cries of “my body, my choice” even in front of the home of conservative judges of the Court in the wealthy suburbs of the capital.
The elected Democrats in Congress, who have promised to protect the right to abortion in the states where they are in the majority, also called on Friday for a large-scale mobilization by gathering on the steps of Congress, which faces the Supreme Court. “We won’t stop fighting until everyone, and I mean everyone, has access to safe and legal abortions, regardless of income, zip code or ethnicity,” promised elected official Barbara Lee, who has in the past publicly discussed her own clandestine abortion.
The economic world in support?
Without the Supreme Court, the options for protecting this right at the federal level are slim. The House did vote last fall for a law guaranteeing access to abortion throughout the country. But this text does not manage for the moment to pass the stage of the Senate, where the Democrats do not have a sufficient majority.
For progressives, support could also come from the economic world. More and more companies, which have long avoided this subject, are taking a stand for the right to abortion with the emergence of a new generation of leaders with different expectations.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen also warned of “very damaging economic consequences” if women’s “right to decide when, and if, they want to have children” were undermined.
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