The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday ended a ruling that for nearly half a century guaranteed American women’s right to abortion but had never been accepted by the religious right.
This decision does not make terminations of pregnancy illegal, but sets the United States back to the situation in place before Roe v. Wade” of 1973, when each state was free to authorize them or not.
In a highly divided country it is likely that half of the states, especially in the more conservative and religious south and center, could ban them in a more or less short timeframe.
Read: Roe vs. Roe Wade: the map showing where abortion will be banned or restricted in the United States
“The Constitution makes no reference to abortion and none of its articles implicitly protect this right,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote, on behalf of the majority. Roe v. Wade “must be annulled.”
“It is time to return the issue of abortion to the elected representatives of the people,” to local parliaments, he wrote.
A formulation very similar to the draft sentence that had been leaked in early May, provoking major demonstrations throughout the country and a wave of indignation on the left.
Since then the situation has been tense in the vicinity of the high court, cordoned off by security forces to keep protesters at a distance.
Read: “My body, my decision”: Thousands march in the U.S. in defense of abortion rights
On 8 June, a gunman was even arrested near the home of Judge Brett Kavanaugh and charged with attempted murder.
Corta attacked “fundamental freedoms”: Obama
The former president of the United States. Barack Obama on Friday criticized the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the country’s right to abortion, calling it an attack on “fundamental freedoms.”
“Today, the Supreme Court not only reversed nearly 50 years of historical precedent, but relegated the most intensely personal decision anyone can make to the whims of politicians and ideologues — attacking the fundamental freedoms of millions of Americans,” the former Democratic president tweeted.
Read: Women who wanted abortions and ended up in anti-abortion clinics deceptively promoted on Google
U.S. Abortion Rights Buried: Pence
Meanwhile, the former Republican vice president of the United States, Mike Pence, applauded on Friday the decision of the Supreme Court to revoke the right to abortion, which is buried “in oblivion.”
“By returning the issue of abortion to the states and the people, the Supreme Court has corrected a historic mistake,” the evangelical Christian, who was Donald Trump’s right-hand man in the White House, said on Twitter.
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