The US Supreme Court could eliminate the right to abortion in the United Statesaccording to a draft majority opinion of the court.
(Read here: USA: Supreme Court would strike down the right to abortion, according to ‘Politico’ media)
The information was anticipated in the 98-page draft, obtained by Politico, and written by Judge Samuel Alito and circulated within the conservative-dominated court, the news outlet reported.
Specifically, the ruling “Roe v. Wade”, which is almost 50 years old, is the one that would be under the court’s sights. What is this sentence about?
(In context: US inclined to reverse decision that legalized abortion 50 years ago)
What is Roe v. Wade?
On January 22, 1973the United States Supreme Court established in its landmark decision “Roe v. Wade” that the right to respect for privacy guaranteed by the Constitution applied to abortion.
In a lawsuit filed three years earlier in a Texas court, Jane Roe, pseudonym of Norma McCorveya single mother pregnant for the third time, attacked the constitutionality of Texas legislation that made abortion a crime.
The highest jurisdiction in the country took up the issue months later due to an appeal by Jane Roe against the Dallas prosecutor, Henry Wade, but also by another from a doctor and that of a couple without children who wanted to be able to practice or undergo a voluntary interruption of pregnancy legally.
After having listened to the parties on two occasions, the Supreme Court waited for the presidential elections of November 1972 and to the re-election of Republican Richard Nixon to issue his decisiontaken by seven votes against two.
(See also: How is the discussion about abortion going in the United States?)
Acknowledging the “sensitive and emotional nature of the abortion debate, the starkly opposing viewpoints, even among physicians, and the deep and unequivocal convictions that the issue inspires,” the high court ended up overturning Texas abortion laws.
Right with restrictions
The decision, which marked jurisprudence in a majority of states in the country where similar laws were in force, stipulates that “the right to respect for private life, present in the 14th amendment of the Constitution (…) is broad enough to be applied to a woman’s decision to terminate her pregnancy or not”.
“A Texas-type law that makes abortion a crime except when the life of the mother is in danger, without regard to the state of the pregnancy or other interests at stake, violates the 14th Amendment to the Constitution,” according to the decision.
But the Supreme Court agreed with the court of first instance that the right to respect for private life “is not, however, absolute.”
“At a certain point, the interests of the state and the protection of health, medical criteria and prenatal life become dominant,” said Judge Harry Blackmun, who wrote the court text.
(In other news: Lasso’s controversial decision in Ecuador: reformulate abortion for rape)
The high jurisdiction thus gave reason to Jane Roe, who later became an anti-abortion activist, but rejected the appeals, described as inadmissible, by the doctor James Hallford and the couple John and Mary Doe.
A) Yes, “Roe vs. Wade” goes hand in hand with the decision “Doe vs. Bolton”which authorizes each federal state to add restrictions to the right to abortion when the pregnancy is advanced.
The constitutional right to abortion has since been confirmed by other judicial decisions.
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
*With AFP
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