Roving Periscope: Is the US SC readying to get abortion outlawed, again?
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: After about four decades, the hot socio-political issue of abortion has returned with a bang in the United States with five of the nine judges of the Supreme Court reportedly favoring a ban on the practice, as per a leaked draft of their judgment expected in June or July.
A news publication, Politico, carried on May 2 this ‘bombshell’ as a scoop that has since become the only thing the Americans are talking about, according to the media reports on Thursday.
The US Supreme Court has admitted that the draft is authentic while reiterating that it does not reflect the court’s final stand, the media reported.
The leaked draft may overturn a four-decade-old judgment allowing women the right to abortion. It showed that the apex court favored effectively banning abortions across the US.
In America, abortion is a deeply emotive matter. The debate over whether a woman should have the right to abortion has a significant religious element to it. It is entwined with the country’s politics mainly divided between the conservative Republicans and the liberal Democrats.
The US Supreme Court’s leaked draft of the judgment calls the earlier verdict, allowing abortion, “egregiously wrong from the start.” It also added that… “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”
No issue perhaps separates the US’ Conservatives from liberals as sharply as abortion does. The Conservatives recite the Catholic Church’s teaching that “human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception.” They oppose abortions in almost all forms (except where the mother’s life is in extreme danger).
However, the liberals advocate the values of ‘right to choose’ and ‘my body, my right’, arguing that a woman must have the freedom and the choice to decide whether to give birth. Abortion, they say, should be a matter between a patient and her doctor.
Their debate reached the US Supreme Court in 1973, which, in a landmark decision, ruled that the US Constitution protected a woman’s right to abortion.
The US Supreme Court’s ruling remained in force for four decades, although several states gradually inserted restrictions making abortions difficult. Some states reduced the number of abortion clinics while others restricted government-funded clinics from offering abortion services. Still others, like Texas, allowed civil lawsuits against those providing abortion services.
The leaked draft has already sparked protests and demonstrations, for and against abortion as a woman’s right.
The Democrats, including US President Joe Biden, have expressed concern and called for legislative action in case the Supreme Court goes ahead with what the draft says.
“If the Court does overturn it, it will fall on our nation’s elected officials at all levels of government to protect a woman’s right to choose,” the President was quoted in the media reports as saying.
The Republicans, however, are aghast at the leak itself and have called for strict punishment for the publication.
