Abortion in the US: back half a century

The Supreme Court of the United States eliminated this Friday, in a sentence with dramatic consequences that will mark that country for generations, the federal protection of the right to abortion established half a century ago.

June 24, 2022 marks a historic turning point in a democracy founded on individual freedom, thus taking a sinister leap backwards in women's rights (more than 60% want legal abortion) unthinkable at the beginning of this decade.

Abortion in the US was protected by a 1973 ruling known as

This doctrine prevented restricting the freedom to terminate pregnancy before the 23rd week.

In

that already has its place in the history of infamy, the Supreme Court agrees with the State of Mississippi and allows it to restrict abortion up to 15 weeks.

To do so, he completely eliminates the precedent, reverses his doctrine and leaves the States free to regulate abortion.

In 26 of them, dominated by the Republican Party, that means imposing restrictions unknown for half a century.

In half of them, laws will be activated immediately that in practice make abortion a crime for millions of women.

Donald Trump promised as a candidate that he would only appoint Supreme Court justices who would reverse the doctrine on abortion.

That promise gave him the votes of a religious right that despised him, a minority group but essential to win the presidency by the minimum.

The sentence is the dream of a religious far-right that, after decades battling within the Republican Party, has finally imposed its fanaticism through an unelected institution, in a disastrous victory that the polls would never have given it.

America is the democracy by which democracies are measured.

Today, his message is devastating: through the manipulation of institutions, extremist policies can be imposed that no democratic majority would give legitimacy.

The conservative majority of the Supreme Court has ignored warnings that such a radical change in doctrine would destroy the prestige of the institution, whose main source of power is the perception of impartiality.

If constitutional rights and freedoms change at the whim of the majority, an interpreter of the Constitution is not needed.

The Supreme Court rarely rules against its own jurisprudence, and has always done so to expand individual rights, not to cut them.

The rapporteur magistrate, Samuel Alito, considers that there is no right to abortion because it is not expressly included in the Constitution.

The new doctrine opens the door to reverse other civil rights that did not exist in the eighteenth century, such as gay marriage.

Yesterday's decision represents an unprecedented regression in North American constitutional history.

In the short term, there is very little that can be done.

Democratic governors and attorneys general can in the coming months set an example of what life is like in states where religious fanaticism does not assault women's bodies.

As the religious right did, it is time for the moderation and common sense with which the vast majority of Americans still identify to be mobilized at the ballot box as well.

This assault is just the beginning.

The lesson is that all freedoms, if not defended, are a generation away from disappearing.

In the United States and everywhere.