What is happening with abortion in America and why is Joe Biden so involved in the matter?

Abortion makes the news again in USA. The Supreme Court has been listening to the arguments of the President’s Government since Monday Joe Biden and abortion clinics on the alleged unconstitutionality of the law in Texas that practically prohibits abortion in that state.

The first thing that analyst Octavio Pescador, a professor at the University of California (UCLA) in Los Angeles, points out is that the Roe vs. Wade – who decriminalized abortion in USA in 1973-, it will remain in force.

According to him, it shouldn’t matter how much people talk about attempts to cut the ‘pro choice‘- euphemism that refers to the ability of women to make decisions about their bodies – or if the news coverage suggests that the law is shaking in the courts of Texas.

We must not lose sight of the fact that, in the United States, Pescador says, “the interpretation of the laws is given, to a large extent, according to what society feels and what is expressed in the polls”. And that the majority is in favor.

With that in mind, it is highly unlikely that the US Supreme Court nullify the right that was established at the federal level almost 50 years ago.

Even, adds the specialist, not all Republicans can be singled out as opponents of the right in question. “That way of thinking does not represent the sentiment of all conservatives”, dice.

“There are those who are economically conservative and socially liberal. There are also gay Republicans, which shows that in the Republican party there is a lot of laxity and different opinions”.

WHAT HAPPENS WITH TEXAS?

At the beginning of September of this year in Texas the law became effective SB8, that “prohibits abortions after they are [pueda] detect the heartbeat in utero, which usually happens around six weeks”.

With this law approved by the local legislative chambers, the role of the federal authorities took a back seat and, on the contrary, encouraged citizens to demand “to women, doctors or whoever assists in the termination of a pregnancy”.

“If the lawsuit is successful, the complainant can receive $ 10,000 to cover his legal damages. The defendants do not receive this monetary support if they win in court ”, explains “El País”.

That is, the SB8 it does not prohibit abortion, but creates the conditions to make it difficult, a resource that is used very frequently.

Planned Parenthood notes that, so far in 2021, “Nearly 600 abortion restrictions have been registered in more than 45 states. About 90 have been approved”.

It is then that the organizations that are in favor of the ‘pro choice’ (the clinics that offer abortion services and other associations) and the government of Joe Biden raised the cry to the sky and took legal action.

From this Monday the 1st the Constitutional Court reviews two claims (‘two challenges‘, that have nothing to do with abortion, but focus on legal issues):

1. Whole Woman’s Health vs. Jackson

The Supreme Court must decide whether the federal courts have “the power to revise the abortion ban in Texas”. This because, according to Whole Woman’s Health, the law SB8 “flagrantly violates”The constitutional rights of Texans.

And the case does not end there.

Fisherman notes: “Those who are against this law are asking to sue the judges who approved it”.

It is confirmed by the Center for Reproductive Rights:

“Among the defendants in the lawsuit are all the judges and clerks of the state courts in Texas, the Texas Medical Board, the Texas Board of Nursing, the Texas Board of Pharmacy, the Attorney General, and Mark Lee Dickson, Director of Law. to East Texas Life, [y] an individual who has threatened to sue under the new law”.

The explanation of this resource, explains Pescador, is that those mentioned (except for the last one) should be impartial. “It will be the Supreme Court that will say if it is correct to sue them”.

2. United States vs State of Texas

The position of the federal government is that the law in question constitutes a “brazen attack on the supremacy of federal law”.

“The Washington Post” collects one of the arguments that were heard today in court. The attorney general of the nation, Elizabeth B. Prelogar, said that, if this law goes ahead, “no constitutional right is safe”.

She maintained:

“Texas’ position is that no one can sue, not the women whose rights are most directly affected, not the providers … and not the United States.”

“Our constitutional guarantees cannot be that fragile and the supremacy of federal law cannot be that easy to manipulate”.

JOE BIDEN’S INTEREST

Pescador notes that, with this controversy, the president of the United States is at stake.

“Now that it has done badly in Afghanistan, that its infrastructure plan has not yet been approved and that another controversy is coming about the indebtedness and the debt ceiling, this is a flag to say that it is fighting for the people, who defend the right Women’s”.

Indeed, the president has been speaking out on this issue. Joe Biden has said:

“Texas law will significantly harm women’s access to health care, particularly in communities of color and poor”.

“In an atrocious way, it delegates to citizens the responsibility to report those who believe that they have helped another person to have an abortion, which can include relatives, health workers, secretaries or employees in the clinics or strangers without relation to the individual”.

But, as Pescador suggests, it would be naive to think that the president’s words do not respond to a political interest.

“This issue is one of the fundamental pieces of the political platform of the Democratic Party. The contemporary idea of ​​the party is linked to the right to abortion, as well as support for the working class, etc. “

“With all this, he wins politically, no matter what the outcome. He proves to be congruent”.

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