United States: the Supreme Court will consider a repeal of the right to abortion

This is a demand deemed "staggering" by defenders of abortion rights in the United States.

The state of Mississippi has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to repeal the nation's federal abortion right, in a court document filed Thursday.

The Supreme Court agreed in May to review a Mississippi law banning most abortions from the 15th week of pregnancy, including rape or incest.

It was in the context of this procedure, on which the highest court in the country is due to render a decision in mid-2022, that Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch said Thursday that the judgments establishing the right to abortion were "Shockingly wrong".

"This court should overturn Roe and Casey," the two decisions made in 1973 and 1992, respectively, the prosecutor wrote.

For her, "the conclusion that abortion is a constitutional right has no basis".

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The request of the Attorney General of Mississippi is "astounding", quickly denounced Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights association, defender of the right to abortion.

“Their goal is for the Supreme Court to take away our right to control our own bodies and our future, not just in Mississippi, but everywhere,” she said in a statement.

Towards a reduction in the scope of the law?

The Supreme Court generally refuses to examine appeals challenging its “Roe v. Wade ”, by which she recognized in 1973 a constitutional right to abortion, specifying thereafter that women could abort as long as the fetus is“ not viable ”, which corresponds to approximately 22 weeks of pregnancy. Yet she agreed to take up this Mississippi state law, hinting that it could bend her previous decisions.

The appointment of three Conservative justices during Donald Trump's tenure reshuffled the Supreme Court, leaving only three out of nine progressive magistrates. According to experts, it is likely that the high court will not completely invalidate the Roe v. Wade, but is diminishing its scope by providing more and more leeway for states to prohibit voluntary terminations of pregnancy. This could therefore increase territorial disparities in the country.