After the shock, supporters of the right to abortion mobilized on Saturday in the United States for a second day of demonstrations once morest the decision of the Supreme Court to pulverize what many thought was a given.
By revoking its emblematic judgment “Roe v. Wade”, which since 1973 guaranteed the right of American women to have an abortion, the high court left the States the choice of whether or not to ban abortions in a deeply divided country.
Thousands of people gathered outside the Supreme Court in Washington on Saturday. “What happened yesterday is indescribable and disgusting,” exclaimed Mia Stagner, a 19-year-old political science student. “No woman should be forced to become a mother.”
Satisfaction des “pro-life”
But if the decision horrified progressive activists, it delighted those who, especially on the religious right, had been fighting for its cancellation for decades. A few dozen anti-abortion activists also came to court on Saturday.
“I believe in the sanctity and dignity of human life,” said Live Action Group member Savannah Craven. “Life begins in the womb, life begins at conception”.
Fears of abortion rights advocates
While clinics in Missouri, South Dakota or Georgia closed their doors one following the other, Democratic states, such as California or New York, have pledged to defend access to abortions on their soil.
Defenders of the right to abortion also fear that the Supreme Court, with a clear conservative majority, will reverse other rights such as marriage for all or contraception.