Joe Biden tried, Friday, July 8, to regain the initiative, on the defense of the right to abortion. Four months before the midterm elections, the American president has called for a massive electoral mobilization against a Supreme Court ” out of control “ and projects “extreme” Republicans.
« I hope and strongly believe that women will come forward in record numbers to reclaim the rights that were taken away from them by the Court he declared, criticizing the decision of the Supreme Court, on June 24, to remove the constitutional right to abortion. If the Republican Party won the ballot in November, and instead voted for a law banning abortion across the country, and no longer just in conservative states, Joe Biden has promised to veto it.
Abortion again at the heart of the political debate in the United States
The president signed an executive order with limited scope to protect access to abortion. The text provides in particular to protect mobile clinics practicing abortion at the external borders of the States that have banned it, to guarantee access to the morning after pill and to IUDs and to organize a network of volunteer lawyers. The presidential decree also aims to better protect the confidentiality of personal data held by clinics, doctors and women themselves, via geolocation applications or those for monitoring the menstrual cycle..
Court battle
However, this decree only has a limited scope, compared to the competences of the States. Complete abortion bans are already enforced in nine states: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and West Virginia. Within a few months, the number of these States should increase to twenty-five.
An intense legal battle is underway throughout the country to challenge in court the application of ready-made legislation which was only waiting for the decision of the Supreme Court to enter into force. In Louisiana, a judge returned to appeal on Friday, July 8, on a court decision which had temporarily suspended a legislation adopted by the State prohibiting abortion in most cases.
Pressure from Democrats
In free fall in the polls, faced with galloping inflation, Joe Biden is under pressure from Democrats who find that the White House was too slow to react to the Supreme Court’s decision. The Women’s March organization received the presidential announcements very coldly. Those are “first steps are necessary but it is far from enough. I call on the administration to realize the urgency. Be creative! » said Rachel O’Leary Carmona, executive director of the association.
The boss of the House of Representatives and figure of the Democratic camp Nancy Pelosi has promised to vote next week on two pieces of legislation: one to enshrine a right to federal abortion and the other to protect women who leave their state to have an abortion. But these texts will not come into force, for lack of a strong enough parliamentary majority.