Abortion leak ‘genuine but not final’ as protests sweep America
THE head of the US Supreme Court has confirmed as genuine a leaked document suggesting it will end the nationwide right to abortion — as angry protests about the potential reform continued.
Chief Justice John Roberts said the leak of the draft opinion, written by fellow justice Samuel Alito and apparently setting out the court’s decision to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe vWade ruling in favour of a woman’s right to a termination, was a “betrayal” that would be investigated.
He said that its contents — which indicate that the right to determine the legality of abortion will be handed back to individual states — did not “represent a decision by the Court or the final position of any member on the issues in the case”. His attempts to reassure Americans that the fate of abortion rights has yet to be decided failed to prevent protests across the country.
Outside the Supreme Court in Washington, signs with the message “Justices get out of my vagina” and “legal abortion once and for all” were among those carried by chanting protesters as barriers were erected around the building.
In Los Angeles, police clashed with protesters and one officer pulled out his baton to push the crowd back.
There were also rallies in New York, Boston, Nashville, Dallas and New Orleans, and in San Francisco a man was arrested after climbing the Salesforce tower in what appeared to be an anti-abortion protest.
The political row over the potential change was stoked even further when Oklahoma’s governor signed into law a bill — modelled on one passed in Texas last year — that will allow any citizen to sue any person who helps in an abortion carried out once a foetus has reached six weeks. It is one of a host of “trigger laws” that have been passed or are expected to be passed by states to restrict or ban abortion if Roe v Wade is overturned by the Supreme Court.
US president Joe Biden said he would “be ready when any ruling is issued” to fight the “attack on abortion and reproductive rights”. He added: “It concerns me a great deal that we’re going to, after 50 years, decide a woman does not have a right to choose.” He promised to work to secure a pro-choice majority in Congress to reinstate the nationwide right to abortion.
Abortion provider Planned Parenthood has warned that 36 million women could lose the right to a termination in their state if the court’s decision is confirmed. The ruling is expected in late June or early July. Opinion polls show a majority of Americans in favour of a woman’s right to abortion. A vocal lobby of Christian and conservative campaigners opposes it.
WHEN I was younger, I was obsessed with America. Like so many, I grew up on a television diet rich with American treats from Roseanne and The Cosby Show to The West Wing. Roseanne became a racist, “America’s Dad” was accused by dozens of women of sexual assault and Donald Trump became president. The American dream turned into a nightmare. Certainly for us liberals. I was never in any doubt that America was at its heart a gun-slinging, tough-talking, law and order obsessed, religious yet macho country. You only had to experience the queue for passport control at JFK in the early Noughties. It gave you a glimpse into what Guantanamo Bay must feel like.
But the fact that in amongst all this structural conservatism came shoots of change made them all the more powerful and full of promise. Much of this was of course cultural and was projected on our screens in an aspirational way — like The Cosby Show. When I saw this attractive, successful, middle class black family on screen, my mind was blown. That was the America I naively wanted to believe in. I felt that way when Barack Obama became president. I wept with joy at how far America had come and how this would change the world.
When I look back on that moment, I want to weep again but for what would lie ahead. Now America is a horrible mess. The US was always a divided country, but it has never looked so angry, inflamed and at war with its own citizens. So much of this war is around culture and identity — race, LGBTQ+ rights and, of course, women’s reproductive rights. This is Trump’s proudest achievement. He may be out of office (for now), but his ability to make people turn against each other and turn back the clock on what we thought were established human rights casts a hulking shadow over America and beyond.
I was pleased when Joe Biden won the 2020 election, but it feels like the culture wars are lost — especially when the Supreme Court may overturn Roe v Wade, which will make abortion illegal for millions of women and those who help them. If this happens, anyone performing a termination in Texas would face a life sentence for murder — even if the pregnancy was a result of incest or rape. I cannot get my head around how backwards a step this would be.
At the weekend, I interviewed the International Planned Parenthood Federation which is sending contraceptive, morning after and abortion pills to Ukraine because cases of rape have risen so dramatically that their own supplies were running out. A woman’s right to choose what happens to her own body surely is the absolute baseline of a modern civilised society? Especially in the land of the free.
America is trying hard to re-establish itself on the world stage in a post-Trump, America-First era and after Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, but right now it feels like it has lost all moral authority. And it’s not just women in America who will be feeling frightened — this could have devastating consequences all around the world.
A woman’s right to choose what happens to her own body is surely the absolute baseline of a modern society