For the first time since the end of the right to abortion in the United States, the Supreme Court of a US state guaranteed it this Thursday for its inhabitants, in the name of the local Constitution, inflicting a major setback on opponents of abortion.
The South Carolina Supreme Court struck down a law that prohibited abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.
“We believe that the right to privacy enshrined in our Constitution covers women’s decisions to abort,” she said.
It is with a similar reasoning that the Supreme Court of the United States had sanctified, in 1973 in its judgment Roe v. Wade, American women’s right to abortion. But last June, in a historic twist, he considered this decision wrong and gave each state the freedom to legislate as they pleased on the matter.
Cascading Appeals
Since then, the country has been fractured between the States that have decreed prohibitions, mainly located in the South and the Center, and those that have reinforced access to abortion on their soil, rather on the coasts.
And this panorama is very fluid, each measure is the subject of a cascade of appeals before the local courts.
Since June, restrictive measures have been urgently blocked in several states pending substantive decisions. The South Carolina Supreme Court is the first to issue a final ruling.
“This is a monumental victory for the protection of legal abortion in the South,” reacted Planned Parenthood, which runs many abortion clinics.
Ambiguous use of the word “reasonable”
This opens new perspectives for women in the region deprived of access to abortion, particularly in the states of Alabama and Tennessee.
However, this is not necessarily the end of the war. In its decision, the Supreme Court of South Carolina considers that the right to respect for private life can be “limited” as long as it is done in a “reasonable” manner.
This could allow local legislators to introduce new restrictions.
Source: BFM TV
