Abortion opponents face legal setback in southern US

For the first time since the end of the right to abortion in the United States, a Supreme Court of an American State guaranteed it Thursday, January 5 for its inhabitants, in the name of the local Constitution, inflicting a major setback to the opponents of abortion.

South Carolina's highest court has struck down a law banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.

"

," she said.

It is with a similar reasoning that the Supreme Court of the United States had sanctified, in 1973 in its judgment Roe v.

Wade, the right of American women to have an abortion.

But last June, in a historic volte-face, it considered that this decision was wrong and gave freedom to each State to legislate as it pleases in the matter.

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Since then, the country has been fractured between the States having decreed prohibitions, mainly located in the South and the center, and those having reinforced the access to the terminations of pregnancy on their soil, rather on the coasts.

And this landscape is very fluid, each measure being the subject of cascading appeals before the local courts.

Restrictive measures blocked

Since June, restrictive measures have been urgently blocked in several states pending substantive decisions.

The South Carolina Supreme Court is the first to issue a final judgment.

“

,” reacted the organization Planned Parenthood, which manages many clinics practicing abortions.

This opens up new prospects for women in the region deprived of access to abortion, particularly in the states of Alabama and Tennessee.

However, this is not necessarily the end of the war.

In its decision, the South Carolina Supreme Court finds that the right to privacy can be "

" provided it is done in a "

" manner.

This could allow local lawmakers to introduce new restrictions.