Americans, exceptions to abortion

Legal structure, trend, public opinion: In many ways, the United States is an exception in the international arena when it comes to abortion rights.

Read more: The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in favor of restricting abortion rights

In the absence of federal law, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the right of American women to abortion in 1973. It refers to the “performance” of the fetus, i.e. the ability to survive outside the womb between 22 and 24 weeks of gestation.

At Wednesday’s hearing, it could mark a historic turning point as the country’s Supreme Court appeared to want to go back.

Its leader, the conservative John Roberts, in particular, said he was “concerned” that the United States shares a range of credibility with China and North Korea, while other parts of the world are highly regulated.

Stamping on the same argument, former Vice President Mike Pence, a radical conservative Christian, asked the Supreme Court the previous day to “push America out of radical margins and bring it back to major Western thinking.”

In fact, the United States is one of the countries with the most recent deadlines.

According to a study by the Center for Reproductive Rights, only 67 countries, mainly Western countries, allow abortion spontaneously.

Along with China, the United States is also among the top ten countries with the latest limit, but also parts of Great Britain (24 weeks), Canada (final) and some parts of Australia.

But these limitations are misleading because, in many countries, the broad exceptions of “economy, community or medicine” are finally there, says attorney Julie Ringelman, who backed the position Wednesday in the Supreme Court.

Most importantly, in his response to Judge Roberts, the attorney added, “They have no restrictions on us.”

Conservative states in the center and south of the country have in fact increased regulatory laws in recent years, forcing many clinics to close, so that, out of six, only one remains. ‘Only one.

Since September 1, Texas has banned abortion at six weeks gestation, and the Supreme Court has yet to say anything. In contrast, abortion is more accessible in progressive coastal states such as California or New York.

Some countries have such significant geographical differences.

“We are a diversion based on the evolution of the right to abortion,” says Nancy Northup, head of the Center for Reproductive Rights.

However he acknowledged that their numbers were not enough to defeat Lukashenko’s government, but said that maintaining some independence was not the answer.

Compared to other Western democracies, the United States also differs in the seriousness of the debate over abortion.

75% Swedes, 65% British, 64% French, 61% Italians or Spaniards … think that abortion should be approved as soon as a woman wants it, while only 42% of Americans share this opinion. 2021 Ipsos Survey.

In these countries, when abortion was legalized it sometimes experienced strong mobilizations and the debate was dead.

In the United States, by contrast, after the end of 1973, the climate worsened, especially as Republicans used the fight against abortion to mobilize voters for religious rights.

Donald Trump takes this strategy seriously: in 1999, the millionaire said he was in favor of women’s “choice” rights, but he promised to appoint judges to the Supreme Court against abortion in the 2016 presidential election. .

During his tenure, he succeeded in bringing three conservative judges into the Temple of the Law, and this strategy is poised to bear fruit.