Recently, demonstrations broke out in more than 70 places in 50 states across the United States, and more citizens burned the American flag in the streets to protest and besieged the Supreme Court... The trigger for all this was a major ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.
On June 24, local time, the US Supreme Court ruled to overturn the "Roe v. Wade case", declaring that the constitutional right to abortion that has been maintained for nearly half a century no longer exists – which means that federal laws no longer guarantee abortion rights, and the legality of abortion is handed over to the state government...
In his opinion for the court's majority, Justice Samuel Alito said the Roy case of 1973 and the subsequent high court ruling, which repeatedly reiterated Roy, "must be overruled" because they were "egregiously wrong" and argued that "exceptionally weak" and therefore "exceptionally weak" damaging", equivalent to "an abuse of judicial authority".
Abortion presents a profound moral issue on which Americans hold sharply conflicting views.
Abortion is a profound moral issue, and Americans have very different views on it.
—Samuel Alito
The Roe case mentioned in the opinion, also known as Roe v. Wade, is an epoch-making judicial case in the United States.
pro-life VS pro-choice
Life First OR Choice Supreme?
The dispute over the right to abortion has long existed in the United States: earlier, due to underdeveloped medical conditions, in order to protect the safety of pregnant women, the united states introduced abortion laws, strictly prohibiting illegal abortion, and making abortion a felony. Moreover, abortion laws punish women not for women seeking abortion, but for illegal doctors who provide abortion services to pregnant women.
In the middle of the 20th century, with the improvement of medical technology, the development of the feminist movement in the United States, and the awakening of women's consciousness in the United States, American women began to question the legitimacy of refusing to have abortions for women on the grounds of protecting the health of their mothers, and proposed that women have the absolute choice of whether to have abortions. At this time, "abortion rights" became a widely discussed topic in American society, and gradually became a political issue disputed by the two major schools of american (liberals and conservatives).
And the Roe v. Wade case also happened during this period.
In September 1968, Norma, a 21-year-old girl in Texas, became pregnant after being raped. But she wanted to have an abortion because she couldn't raise her children, but the laws of her state strictly prohibited abortion, so no doctor dared to have an abortion for her. When the feminist lawyer at the time learned of the situation, he provided her with legal aid.
In March 1970, Norma, alias Jenny Roy, formally filed a lawsuit against Dallas County District Attorney Henry Wade in federal district court. The Roy v. Wade case officially began.
In the first lawsuit, the district federal court ruled in favor of Roy, but did not overturn the Texas abortion law. So Roy appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In December 1971, the U.S. Supreme Court formally accepted the case. After more than a year of intense debate, in January 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court rendered a final judgment in Roe v. Wade by 7 votes in favor and 2 against. This is to rule that the Texas Abortion Act is invalid.
Although the outcome of the Roy v. Wade trial has upheld women's autonomy in abortion, the controversy that has arisen has not ceased, and on many occasions it has risen to become a political issue in the partisan struggle between conservatives and liberals. In his opinion, Alito directly quoted relevant content to support the view that "the academic community has long been critical of the Roy case".
It is foreseeable that the ruling of the US Supreme Court will not be the end of the dispute over abortion rights, but the beginning of a national or even global debate on abortion rights in the United States.
With Roe v. Wade overturned, individual states would be able to decide whether and when abortions would be legal. This means that abortion will likely become restricted in some states, and state legislatures and governors will have to take a stand on abortion.
With the overturning of Roy v. Wade, U.S. states will decide for themselves whether and when abortion is legal. This means that abortion is likely to be restricted in some states, and state legislatures and governors will need to take a stand on abortion. (Content from CGTN)
After Roe v. Wade was overturned, some U.S. states moved quickly to ban abortion, and South Dakota, Kentucky, and Louisiana enacted laws that lawmakers clearly designed to take effect immediately after roy was overturned. Similar laws are in Idaho, Tennessee and Texas, where most abortions are illegal after about six weeks of pregnancy. Abortion laws in some other states will be enforced after state officials such as the governor or attorney general take action.
Although abortion is now more restrictive overall, according to the Gutmacher Institute, the long-term decline in abortion has been reversed: in 2020, there were 930,160 abortions in the United States, an 8% increase from 2017, while fewer and fewer people became pregnant, and more people who became pregnant chose abortion.
- abortion n. miscarriage; Abortion; Abortion surgery
- the right to an abortion 堕胎权
- Supreme Court
- overturn n./v. subversion; Overturned; destroy
- upend v. handstand; upside down
- fetus n. embryo; fetus
- Right to life
Ray Baker, a professor at Towson University in the United States, commented on this: "Whenever the United States raises the issue of state rights, its ultimate purpose is to consolidate the status of white supremacists, heterosexuals, and patriarchs, and to condone their persecution of those other than whites, heterosexual men, and capitalists." ”
"Every time the United States has had a meaningful question about states' rights, it has ultimately served to ensure and enshrine white supremacist, heterosexual, patriarchal harm and violence against everyone who is not white, heterosexual male, and capitalist."
As mentioned above, the dispute between the two major schools of school in the United States, whether it is the dispute over the right to abortion, or the dispute over the protection of sexual minorities and people of color, extreme partisanship will eventually only lead to damage to the public interest and the destruction of the national order.
THE END.
Looking forward to a better future
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Text: Yur
Edit: Yur
Image: Web, screenshot of media coverage