In the United States, a Provocation for the ‘Pro-Lifers’

The Supreme Court has just made an important decision in defense of the right to an abortion in the United States. On June 27, it invalidated a Texas law that actually restrained access to voluntary termination of pregnancy. Enacted in 2013 by the incumbent Republican governor, this law required clinics performing abortion to conform to the norms of ambulatory surgery and to arrange a reserved place within a hospital located within 50 km (about 31 miles) of the clinic for each abortion.

For supporters of this law, it was a question of protecting women’s health; for the concerned establishment, the law was really aimed at merely increasing the cost of abortions with the goal of stopping them. Under this procedure in a state as large as France and composed of more than 27 million inhabitants, 22 of the 41 clinics in Texas performing abortions closed in four years. Fully implemented, the law threatened to eventually reduce the number to eight. Many states, like Louisiana and Missouri, considered adopting similar laws. They will now review their proposed laws.

The One-Upmanship of the Republicans

For the “pro-lifers,” the opponents of abortion, the affront is scathing. This is the first time in 15 years that the highest American court has thwarted states’ anti-abortion politics, politics mostly dictated by Republicans. But, if the Supreme Court’s decision is a victory for the rights of women, it does not erase the currently powerful pro-life movement in the United States. During the last four years, more than 200 restrictive laws have been adopted at the local level: notification and parental presence for minors, the reading of a text that informs the woman that the father of the child can be forced to meet their needs, listening to, and display of, an ultrasound at the time of an examination.

Besides the reduction in the number of clinics, the legal arsenal is equally understood to include the imposition of a wait time, which can be 72 hours between the request and the medical act (26 states are concerned) or the ban of applied techniques for all late interventions. While the country adopted gay marriage, increasingly tolerates marijuana, and seems to be slowly shutting down the death penalty, topics that are dear to conservatives, the Republicans have outdone everyone else in making anti-abortion laws their ultimate moral crusade. The tactic is always the same: unable to tackle the constitutional right recognized by the Supreme Court in 1973, the Republicans deplete this right of its contents in the states they control. Thus, an estimated 1 million women are now at least 240 km (about 149 miles) away from a clinic practicing abortion, which obviously constitutes a serious obstacle.

As symbolic as it is, especially during an election year, the Supreme Court decision is not close to disarming the anti-abortion movement. Everywhere, plans are being developed to further restrict the right to an abortion. In addition, according to a poll taken in June, 47 percent of Americans are in favor of the ban, and surveys show a greater permeability to anti-abortion arguments, especially in the South. The satisfaction of defenders of the right to abortion risks, regrettably, may be short-lived.