Far from eliminating abortions, the United States Supreme Court’s historic U-turn on abortion a year ago created above all a hellish headache for women, a mess in the courts and a dilemma for the Republican Party.
On June 24, 2022, the High Court, significantly overhauled by Donald Trump, overturned its Roe v. Wade, which guaranteed since 1973 the right of American women to have an abortion, and gave back to each state its freedom to legislate.
The same day, the first states banned terminations of pregnancy on their soil, forcing clinics to close urgently or to move to more welcoming lands.
Since then, the country has been fractured between the twenty states that have decreed prohibitions or strong restrictions, mainly located in the South and the center, and those on the coasts that have adopted new guarantees.
The overall impact remains, from a numerical point of view, limited: the professional organization Society of family planning recorded an average of 79,031 abortions per month across the country from July 2022 to March 2023, compared to 81,730 in April. /May 2022, a decrease of 3.3%.
“Many people continue to get the abortions they need, but they face more obstacles,” said Ushma Upadhyay, a professor of public health and gynecology at the University of California, San Francisco, for AFP. , and co-author of this study.
Clinic closures in a dozen states have prompted tens of thousands of women to travel.
Beyond the economic cost, getting a day off or explaining your absence to loved ones is not always easy. Getting organized also postpones the intervention, later in the pregnancy, and can have a psychological impact.
Not to mention the health risk.
In a complaint, Texas resident Anna Zargarian said her waters broke far too soon for her fetus to survive, but had to travel to Colorado to expel her. The flight was “frightening”: “it was like playing Russian roulette: I could have a hemorrhage, an infection or go into labor at any time”.
In the first trimester, Americans can also use the abortion pill. But it is illegal in several states and those who obtain it on the internet or through support networks “face the risk of being prosecuted”, notes Ushma Upadhyay.
As for those who are forced to carry their pregnancies to term, it is above all “the poorest of the poorest”, and given the deep racial inequalities in the country, often black or Hispanic women, adds the expert .
For her, the future is uncertain. For a year, many donors have mobilized to help women, “but in a year or two, these private efforts will run out,” she predicts.
Likewise, the legal landscape remains unstable. Each restrictive law has been challenged in court and the outcome of most appeals is not yet known, including in populated southern states such as Georgia or South Carolina.
But the biggest unknown is the abortion pill.
In April, a federal judge withdrew the marketing authorization for mifepristone (RU 486), which the United States Drug Administration (FDA) had granted in 2000 and which has since been used by more than five million people. women.
His decision was put on hold by the Supreme Court but an appeal court could validate it soon.
The battle also continues in the political arena.
Led by President Joe Biden, a practicing Catholic who has long been cautious about abortion, the Democrats have made the defense of the right to abortion one of their priorities. This strategy seems to have saved them from the rout announced in the mid-term elections.
The failure of referenda hostile to abortion in the very conservative states of Kansas and Kentucky also tempered the ardor of the Republicans.
To satisfy the religious right, an essential component of their electorate, they are pushing at the local level for very restrictive legislation. Anxious not to alienate moderate voters, they are on the other hand more reserved at the federal level, despite pressure from major anti-abortion organizations.
Among them, the group SBA Pro-Life said it would only support 2024 presidential candidates who pledge to promote a law restricting abortion across the United States.
Donald Trump, who boasts of having “buried Roe v. Wade” by bringing three conservative judges to the Supreme Court, is kicking for the moment.
19/06/2023 05:12:52 – Washington (AFP) – © 2023 AFP