Protests continue in American cities and towns after the Supreme Court withdrew constitutional protection from people seeking abortion.
The court overturned the historic Roe v Wade ruling, a measure that is likely to lead to a ban on abortion in about half of the states.
Pregnant women who were thinking about having an abortion were already facing an almost total ban in Oklahoma and a ban after about six weeks in Texas.
Image: Washington DC
Clinics in at least eight other states (Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and West Virginia) have stopped having abortions after the decision.
In Alabama, where all three state clinics have stopped services, Gov. Kay Ivey praised the Supreme Court’s decision.
“I couldn’t be more proud as governor, Christian and woman to see this wrong and harmful decision overturned,” she said. “Alabama will continue to advocate for our unborn babies, our mothers and our families.”
Image: Anti-abortion protesters celebrate court ruling
Utah law, which went into effect after the repeal of Roe v. Wade, makes abortions illegal, except in cases of rape or incest, or when the mother is facing a serious offense. risk to your life or health.
An Ohio law banning most abortions at the first detectable fetal heartbeat also went into effect after the Supreme Court decision.
In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a protest against the court’s decision turned violent after the driver of a van tried to run over the protesters.
Democratic governors in California, Washington and Oregon pledged to protect reproductive rights and help women traveling to their states in search of abortions.
Image: San Diego, California. Image: AP
In Massachusetts, Republican Gov. Charlie Baker signed an executive order designed to protect access to reproductive health.
The order prohibits state agencies from assisting another state’s investigation into a person or company to receive or provide legal reproductive health services in Massachusetts.
It also protects providers who offer reproductive health care services.
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1:13 The crowd reacts to Roe’s decision against Wade
But as protests against the Supreme Court decision continue, there is also fear that the court and its conservative majority will not stop aborting.
Judge Clarence Thomas, one of the court’s conservatives, has urged his colleagues to overturn other high court decisions that protect same-sex marriage, gay sex and the use of contraceptives.
“In future cases, we should reconsider all the substantive precedents of the due process of this court, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell,” Judge Thomas wrote in his concurring opinion in the Roe ruling.
Read more: The rape survivor set out to take her own life after becoming pregnant. President Biden warns “the health and lives of women at risk” Roe v Wade: How did we get here?
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2:00 Marjorie Taylor Greene says “abortion is not part of our constitution”
Griswold v Connecticut established the right of a married couple to use contraception without government interference in 1965.
The court ruled in Lawrence’s 2003 v. Texas case that states could not criminalize sodomy, and Obergefell v. Hodges established the right to marry same-sex couples in 2015.
In the decision written by Judge Samuel Alito, however, the rest of the majority of the court said: “We have stated unequivocally that nothing should be understood in this opinion to call into question precedents that do not refer to the ‘abortion.
Image: Salt Lake City, Utah
“We’ve also explained why this is the case: contraceptive rights and same-sex relationships are inherently different from the right to abortion.”
But the three dissenting judges said: “No one should trust that this majority has finished its work … On the contrary, the court has linked (Roe v Wade) for decades to other established freedoms involving bodily integrity, family relationships and use of contraceptives “.