The backtracking continues. A new US state, Idaho, has passed a law authorizing civil lawsuits once morest medical professionals performing voluntary terminations of pregnancy (abortion), the latest episode in a vast conservative offensive to curtail the right to abortion in the country. This law, signed Wednesday by the governor, allows the families of women who have undergone an abortion – as well as the fathers of the fetus even if they are guilty of rape – to file a complaint once morest the clinics or doctors who carried out the intervention. It is modeled following a similar law that has generated considerable controversy in Texas.
Idaho Governor Brad Little has claimed to be a staunch defender of the rights of “unborn babies” but worried that this law, which returns “to delegate the power to private citizens to impose heavy fines […] for the purpose of escaping the scrutiny of the courts, be declared contrary to the Constitution of the United States. Such an approach undermines the institutions and “weakens our collective freedoms”he warns in a letter to local parliamentarians.
Taking up the arguments of critics of the Texas law, Governor Little notes that this type of law might end up turning once morest other rights dear to conservatives, such as the right to own and carry a firearm. The new law has been denounced by human rights defenders as well as the White House.
Hundreds of abortion bills
“Legislators have openly bragged regarding this law as a clever way to limit access to abortion” bypassing justice, said Lauren Bramwell, of a powerful civil rights organization, denouncing a text “irresponsible and politically motivated that will do harm”. White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki called the Texas law and its siblings a crude attempt to undermine the Supreme Court’s decision, the landmark “Roe v. Wade” of 1973, which guarantees the right of women to have an abortion during the first two trimesters of pregnancy.
“Over the past six months, Texas law has had profoundly negative effects, forcing women to travel hundreds of miles to access care”she castigated, noting that the impact of such laws was particularly strong on women with low incomes and living in rural areas.
Restrictive or on the contrary protective, bills on abortion are sweeping through hundreds of American state parliaments awaiting a decision by the Supreme Court, which has a conservative majority, and is likely to upset the legal framework in force for nearly fifty years. in the USA. A total of 1,844 measures related to contraception and abortion were introduced in 46 states between January 1 and March 15, counted the Guttmacher research institute, which campaigns for the right of women to control their bodies. .
