Texas abortion ban: "a domino effect on other states"
Audio 19:30
Pro-abortion activists gathered outside the Texas Capitol on September 11, 2021. Getty Images via AFP - JORDAN VONDERHAAR
By: Marion Cazanove
2 min
The United States is still tearing itself apart over the
Texas Heartbeat Act
, the anti-abortion law in Texas.
This SB8 law was suspended for a few days by a federal judge in Texas, following a complaint from the Biden administration, before being reinstated Friday, October 8, after the decision, this time, of a Court of Appeal. federal.
The federal government has until Tuesday, October 12, to file an appeal.
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This law prohibits having an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, that is to say around the time of the first heartbeat of the fetus. It is one of the most restrictive laws in the country in this area, it is a major struggle for Democrats, right up to government. “
The Texas law has this problem that on the one hand, we come to directly attack the bottom of Roe v. Wade, since access to abortion itself is called into question
, ”explains
Andréanne Bissonnette
, researcher in residence at the Raoul-Dandurand chair at UQAM, the University of Quebec in Montreal and guest of RFI. The
Roe versus Wade decision
, taken in 1973, is a landmark United States decision opening up abortion rights in the United States. "
On the other hand
, continues Andréanne Bissonnette,
this law has the particularity of allowing private citizens to sue anyone who has helped or intended to help a woman to have an abortion beyond the sixth week. This poses legal questions that go beyond abortion.
"
The weight of this law has a "
domino effect
" on other states, also underlines the researcher.
At the national level, the risk is to open the door to an overthrow of
Roe versus Wade
.
The Supreme Court, the highest court in the country, with a Republican majority, could initiate this turnaround.
She must already vote in the fall on a Mississippi law, which prohibits abortion beyond 15 weeks of pregnancy.
“
If the court leans on the Mississippi government side, there could be either an erosion of the right to abortion or a complete overturn of Roe v.
Wade.
"
►
To read also: Suspension of the anti-abortion law in Texas: the defenders of the rights do not cry victory
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