Source: CCTV news client
This week, the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on abortion rights continued to ferment. On June 24, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the roe v. Wade decision. According to the Guardian, a verdict that allowed American women to enjoy abortion rights for nearly 50 years disappeared overnight. Even U.S. President Joe Biden admitted, "It's a tragedy for the United States, a mistake made by the Supreme Court that set the United States back 150 years." "To the BBC, the ruling is like a big earthquake, and its impact is just beginning.
On June 30, US President Joe Biden was confronted with embarrassing questions from reporters.
Reporter: "America is back" was the motto of your first NATO summit last year. Now the G7 summit is in Germany, and inflation has hit new records after the U.S. Supreme Court overruled the constitution's protections for abortion and after the shootings in Buffalo and Texas. The latest poll this week shows that 85 percent of Americans think America is going in the wrong direction, and how are you going to explain that to people, including some of the leaders you met this week who think what's happening in front of America's eyes [shows] america is going backwards.
US President Joe Biden: One of the things that has been destabilizing for a long time is the infuriating ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court, which not only overturned Roe v. Wade, but also fundamentally challenged the right to privacy. The United States has played a "leading" role in human rights and privacy, which is a mistake.
The United States staged an abortion rights farce G7 allies have drawn a clear line
Bloomberg pointed out that this abortion rights farce in the United States has cast a shadow over Biden's G7 trip. In the face of the meeting with Biden, Western "allies" have drawn a clear line with the United States on this issue.
French President Emmanuel Macron said: "Abortion is a fundamental right of all women. It must be protected. I want to express my solidarity with the women whose freedoms have been undermined by the U.S. Supreme Court. ”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said: "The news coming from the United States is shocking. I extend my sympathy to the millions of American women who will now lose their legal right to have an abortion. I can't imagine the fear and anger you feel right now. ”
British Prime Minister Johnson: I have to tell you, I think it's a huge step backwards.
The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade case
Overnight it's like "going back 50 years"
On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade by a 5:4 vote.
The majority, made up of conservative justices, argues that the right to abortion is not a constitutional right, which means that states in the United States have discretion in regulating abortion.
According to CNN, with the final decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, 26 of the country's 50 states will further ban or restrict abortion, which will affect about 36 million women of childbearing age. Thirteen of these states launched "trigger laws" on the 24th, that is, from the moment the Supreme Court ruling was announced, the abortion ban began.
In Texas, the home of conservatives, 50 years ago, where Roe v. Wade took place, Republican Attorney General Paxton immediately outlawed abortion. The news came that the women who were waiting at the Texas Family Planning Center for an abortion were devastated.
Texans: I feel like my country doesn't care about me, I feel like they want me to die and don't let me make my own decisions.
In stark contrast to conservative states, traditional Democratic states such as California and New York have said they will welcome women from outside the state to seek "abortion asylum" in their own states with open arms.
California Attorney General Bonta: Abortion and reproductive health care are completely legal in California, and you will be fully protected in California.
Google, Microsoft, Netflix and other technology companies in the western United States have even said that if the abortion rights of employees and their families in foreign states are restricted by local laws, the company will cover the cost of their abortion journey to and from California and pay other subsidies.
The Guttmacher Institute, a U.S. research firm, said it expects a 30-fold surge in the number of women traveling to California this year.
This is reminiscent of the United States before 1973, when at the Dallas airport in Texas, there were usually dozens of female passengers preparing to go to the abortion on the weekly flight to California.
The BBC can't help but exclaim: Overnight the United States seems to have gone back 50 years. Today the United States seems to be divided into two, made up of two very independent countries. The peoples of the two "tribes" share completely different values, beliefs, and goals. And they are becoming more and more distant from each other.
People who support abortion rights: From the time I was born, the school taught me that we grew up in a free land, and this freedom is innate. Now I feel angry and confused as to why my own body has lost this freedom.
People who support abortion rights: It doesn't matter if you don't agree with abortion, it doesn't mean you can take away someone else's rights, it's as simple as that.
Pro-life people: We are dancing on the grave of Roy v. Wade, which means more than the Normandy landings, and we will arrive in Berlin. We will make it a crime to kill babies in all 50 states.
After the Supreme Court announced its verdict, demonstrations broke out in hundreds of cities across the United States.
In New York City, tens of thousands of demonstrators paralyzed city traffic for hours; In los Angeles, the highway was closed for a time due to demonstrations. In Phoenix, arizona's capital, tens of thousands of people tried to storm the state capitol building, and SWAT forces used tear gas to disperse the demonstrators.
According to a national poll conducted by the PBS in May, about 64 percent of Americans do not want the Roe v. Wade verdict overturned. But among the nine justices of the Supreme Court, conservative justices nominated by the Republican president make up the majority, and this result has long been expected.
The Guardian argues that the overthrow of Roe v. Wade means that the political power of the United States has surpassed the constitutional rights of the people themselves.
The US leftist media "Jacobin" further pointed out that the US Supreme Court is experiencing a crisis of trust. As a "beacon of democracy", just because conservative judges in the Supreme Court occupy an absolute numerical superiority, the Roy case case has been overturned in a short period of time, and it is difficult not to make the American people question whether the American judicial system is still independent of the government and legislative systems, or has been reduced to a political institution deeply involved in ideological struggles.
Origin of Roy v. Wade
Before the 1970s, nearly 80 percent of white people in the United States were Christian, largely influenced by religious factors, and abortion was banned in 46 of the 50 states of the United States, with 30 states not allowing any exceptions. This means that abortion is not allowed even in cases of pregnancy in cases such as rape or incest.
In The Usefulness of Feminism, British author Tabby Jackson Gee writes: "In the 1960s, 1 million women performed illegal abortions in the United States alone every year, either by poorly skilled backstreet abortion technicians or by pregnant women themselves."
In 1969, Norma McCorvey, a 21-year-old waitress in Texas, became pregnant unexpectedly, with a meager salary and no place to live, and was simply unable to raise children, so she had to choose to have an abortion.
She first went to an underground abortion clinic in Dallas, and when she saw that the light was dim and the ground was full of cockroaches, Norma fled in fright.
In March 1970, with the help of a recently graduated female lawyer, Sarah Weddington, Norma used the pseudonym Jane Roe to file a lawsuit against Henry Wade, the district attorney in Dallas County, Texas, who enforces the abortion law, under the name Roe v. Wade. Wade）。
In the end, after three years, Roe v. Wade appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Sarah Veddington, Roy's lawyer: One of the justices asked me at the time, when do you think human life begins? I replied, "Honorable Judge, there is no need for us to discuss this precise moment, there is no answer to this question, different religions have answered this question differently, but there is no law on the moment from which the fetus becomes a human being. So the question is, who can make that decision, women or the government? "I don't think it's a decision the government can make.
PBS argued that the partisan strife in the United States was not obvious in the context of the times, and even in the predominant number of conservative justices at the time, the U.S. Supreme Court still examined and ruled on the case from a social and medical perspective.
US News: Good evening, today the Supreme Court ruled in a landmark decision that abortion rights are constitutional. The court vote was 7 to 2, with Justice White and Justice Rankester contesting the ruling. The decision made abortion a private issue, stipulating that states could not legislate against abortion except in the last months of pregnancy (the third trimester).
At that time, Roy's victory once became a model for women's rights and interests in the world.
The judgment clearly states that the right to abortion is a fundamental right, which, like the right to privacy, is protected by the Constitution.
Abortion rights are overthrown Poor women in the United States are the most affected
Back 50 years later, in the view of the Wall Street Journal, the United States, as a case law country, the Supreme Court of the United States has now overturned the judgment of 50 years ago, which is a rare move.
Wall Street Journal law commentator Brevin: It is not too much to exaggerate the importance of the trial, and the court took a 180-degree turn and completely overturned the earlier judgment. 50 years ago, [the SPC] recognized [abortion as a matter of constitutional rights and privacy], but 50 years later it said, "We were wrong before."
The BBC pointedly pointed out that the constitution has not changed word for word, and what caused Roy to "fall" is the increasingly polarized political environment in the United States in recent decades.
Between 1992 and 2010, states in the United States introduced more than 700 local regulations restricting abortion, directly leading to the closure of hundreds of family planning clinics across the country, according to the BBC.
In the view of legal personnel, if conservative state women with certain economic conditions can still go to other places to undergo abortion surgery, the "Roy case" is overturned, and the most affected are undoubtedly those poor women at the bottom, especially ethnic minority women.
Clarksdale, located in southern Mississippi, is one of mississippi's poorest districts, with more than 80 percent of the population being of African descent.
According to the U.S. Public Television Network, more than a third of the urban population here lives below the U.S. poverty line. The infant mortality rate here is twice the national average, and 75% of babies born here are born to single mothers, many of them teenagers.
As one of the most conservative states on abortion, until this year, there was only one family planning center in the entire Mississippi state.
The city of Clarksdale is about a three-hour drive from the only family planning centre, and many black women simply don't have the means to get there.
Turner, a Clarksdale City resident: In the Mississippi Delta, [abortion] is unrealistic, there can be no such thing here, and we don't have such clinics here. I know young girls who have had three or four children because they can't afford abortion, and if you don't have the money, if you live on aid or medicare, you have to live like this, you have to face the child.
In 2002, the Mississippi state government banned government funds from being used to pay for abortions.
Tucker, former deputy governor of Mississippi: Not a penny of conservative state money (which cannot be spent on abortions), taxpayer money cannot be used to fund abortions, not a penny can be used to fund abortions. It's a strong message to the entire state and the whole country to use as a reference for other states to pass similar legislation (restrictions on abortion).
White, head of the Clarksdale City Public Health Station: These women really don't have a choice, and we [the state] made decisions for them, which is no different from before Roy v. Wade, for whom nothing has changed.
Meanwhile, Mississippi's only family planning clinic has long been besieged by pro-life populations.
The "old scars" of American politics have once again festered
Since the late 1990s, in many parts of the United States, the debate over abortion rights has become extreme.
The United States, which has highly advocated the so-called "right to free choice of individuals" on issues of masks, vaccinations and other epidemic prevention issues, has made serious setbacks in some of the basic human rights recognized internationally.
The U.S. Public Television Network pointed out that in fact, abortion rights are like many stubborn diseases of American society such as gun problems, racial problems, immigration problems, etc. Freezing three feet is not a cold day. Against the backdrop of american political polarization, all kinds of "old scars" that have never healed have festered again.
It is not surprising that Roy "upside down" runs.
On June 25, local time, former US President Trump appeared at the republican midterm election campaign rally to celebrate victory for the previous day's Supreme Court judgment.
The BBC believes it was the three conservative justices nominated during Trump's presidency (Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Barrett) that brought Roy v. Wade over. It is also seen as one of the biggest political legacies of the Trump presidency.
Former PRESIDENT TRUMP: I promised to nominate justices who dared to uphold the original intent of the Constitution, and who honestly and faithfully interpreted the original intent of the law when it was written.
After the public in the audience shouted thanks to Trump, the "protagonist" of the campaign rally, Rep. Miller, a Republican from Illinois seeking re-election, spoke in a surprising way.
REP. Miller, Republican of Illinois: President Trump, on behalf of all the patriots who "make America Great Again," I thank you for bringing this historic victory to white lives.
Although after the rally, Miller's public relations team came forward to clarify that the "white life" statement was a slip of the tongue.
In fact, this is not the first time Miller has made racist remarks in public. On the day of the Capitol Hill riots on January 6, 2021, Miller publicly praised Hitler at a rally in Washington, D.C., in solidarity with Trump.
REP. Miller, Republican of Illinois: Hitler was right about one thing, and that is whoever has young people has a future.
Four days after winning trump's podium, Miller won easily in his 15th district in Illinois. And in Florida, another New Republican newcomer to Trump's backing, Anna Luna, extended her lead with her rivals to 40 percent in this week's primaries.
Luna, Republican candidate for The Thirteenth District of Florida: We've seen this happen all over the country, and when endorsed by President Trump, basically the approval rating can increase by 30 to 40 percent, because people know, I'm Trump's candidate, I'm an "America First" candidate.
According to the Wall Street Journal, after the curtain opened on this year's midterm election primary, Trump has endorsed 11 Republican candidates.
Republican Campaign Strategy Adviser McLean: Now the endorsement of Donald Trump, especially in the Republican primary, is simply the golden standard.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation believes that this heralds the return of the far-right values represented by "Trumpism" in American society.
A new survey conducted by harvard's Center for American Politics and harris polls for capitol Hill shows that as of now, in the 8 potential candidates for the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, Trump is firmly in first place with 57% support, and Florida Governor DeSantis and former Vice President Pence are second and third with 12% and 11% support, respectively.
For now, no Republican candidate would dare to say "no" to Trump in order to win this year's midterm elections.
After the Supreme Court's decision, several Republicans have expressed the hope that Republican voters will unite and take advantage of the victory to help republicans win both houses of Congress in the midterm elections.
For now, Republicans need to add 1 seat in the Senate and 4 seats in the House of Representatives to achieve this goal.
Democrats also want to use the mood of the public on abortion to launch a defensive counterattack.
Earlier, on May 2 of this year, a document obtained by POLITICO showed that a draft majority opinion drafted by conservative Justice Alito would "overturn Roe v. Wade." Coincidentally, on May 3, the day after the document was made public by the politician news network, the first primary of the midterm elections was held in several states across the United States.
Pelosi, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives: Women's right to choose, freedom to reproduce, was written on the November ballot
American: Yes, abortion rights [have some impact on the midterm elections] and that's an important criterion for me to consider candidates. We've been like this in our lives, the progress we've made is now going backwards, I don't know how long I'll live, but I don't like this regression, I still have grandchildren.
The Wall Street Journal argues that Republicans have put the biggest bet on immigration in the midterm elections, compared to Democrats who rely on women voters.
In addition to the right to abortion the death of the migrant in a container truck has led to disputes
At around 5:50 p.m. on June 27, next to railroad tracks in the southern suburbs of San Antonio, Texas, a worker heard a faint cry for help coming from inside a truck container and then called the police, NBC reported. When police arrived at the scene to open the truck's cargo box door, they found "piles of corpses."
In the end, 53 people were smothered alive and 5 people were abandoned in the wilderness. Inside the truck containers were "stowaways" trying to enter the U.S. illegally, from countries such as Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras, police said.
The Homeland Security Agency said the incident was the deadliest human smuggling incident in U.S. history.
At the time of the case, Texas was experiencing a heat wave, with temperatures in the San Antonio area of the crime reaching nearly 40 degrees Celsius and high humidity. The investigation showed that there was neither any water on the truck nor ventilation nor air conditioning equipment in the truck.
After the mass human smuggling deaths, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, attacked Biden for the first time, blaming the fatal incident on the Biden administration's lax approach to border controls.
Between October 2020 and September 2021, the detention of illegal immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border peaked at 1.7 million, the highest number ever recorded in 1960, USA Today reported. In May alone, 240,000 illegal immigrants were detained, an increase of about a third from last year.
AP: Historicly high inflation dictates the outcome of the midterm elections
The Associated Press's analysis argues that it remains to be seen to what extent the Supreme Court's decision affects the outcome of the midterm elections. Compared with abortion rights, the Most Concerned American People is still the record inflation in the United States.
On July 1, according to a poll published on the Political website FiveThirtyEight, Biden's approval rating fell to a record low of 39.2 percent, below the contemporaneous level of his predecessor Trump. A poll on the same day by harvard's Center for American Politics showed that a whopping 71 percent of respondents believe Biden should not run for re-election.
According to a new poll released by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research in late June, a whopping 85 percent of respondents believe the United States is on the wrong path. 79 percent of those respondents believe the U.S. economy will get worse.
Burke, White House correspondent for the Associated Press: This poll comes at a time when the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade and abortion rights lose constitutional protections, and we conduct the same poll when congressional riots are heard; There are also when oil prices rise by more than $5 (per gallon); When Russia goes to war with Ukraine; When party rivalry intensifies and political antagonisms arise. Time and again, disagreements affect people's perceptions of the country's future prospects.
International organizations reaffirm that reproductive rights are an important component of women's rights
On June 24, UN Secretary-General's spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said the UN's repeated reaffirmation that reproductive rights are an important part of women's rights and a fundamental principle of human rights upheld by international agreements, as reflected in the laws of most countries around the world.
Restrictions on women's abortion rights by the U.S. Supreme Court and some local governments have greatly undermined the basic human rights of American women, such as their right to privacy and personal safety. Not only that, but the United States is one of the few countries that has not yet ratified the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, a violation of the basic human rights of its citizens.
In addition, according to WHO data, the maternal mortality rate in the United States is the highest of all developed countries, and restricting abortion laws would make infant and maternal mortality rates higher in conservative states. Especially for low-income people, especially adolescents, people of color, immigrants and refugees, they will be more affected by abortion restrictions.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: Given the US Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, I would like to reiterate WHO's position that all women should have a choice when it comes to physical and health issues, which is not negotiable.
The Capitol Hill noted that just after the Supreme Court's abortion right decision, Biden vowed to use all means to get the 1973 Roy v. Wade verdict passed at the federal legal level. At the same time, a number of Republicans, including former VICE PRESIDENT Pence, announced that if the Republican Party wins both houses of Congress in the midterm elections, it will implement a comprehensive abortion ban in all US states.
The BBC pointed out that the Supreme Court's ruling is like a constitutional bomb on an already contradictory American society, and that decades of disputes over abortion have now ignited a new round of war. Both parties seem to see a "rehearsal" of the midterm elections in various antagonistic moods.
However, the basic rights that ordinary people should enjoy have become victims of "division".
The New York Times couldn't help but ask worriedly: Whether it is Roy "going backwards" or the United States going backwards today, and what will be the next regression?