With his eyes on the November poll, Donald Trump attended the annual mass for anti-abortion activists in Washington on Friday, January 24. He denounced the "radical" positions of his democratic opponents on this very divisive subject in the United States.
"It is a great honor for me to be the first President in history to participate in the March for Life!" Launched the Republican billionaire in front of a conquered crowd gathered on the huge lawns of the National Mall in Washington. .
At the same time, a few hundred meters away, within the confines of the Congress, the senators continued their debates in his dismissal trial. "They are attacking me because I am fighting for you," said Donald Trump in an allusion to this procedure which will, whatever the outcome, leave an indelible mark on his mandate.
Former "pro-choice" now "pro-life"
The republican billionaire who, in 1999, said he was very "pro-choice" (favorable to the possibility of choosing abortion), is now more than ever determined to position himself as the most "pro-life" president of the History.
Denouncing, in a speech with the overtures of a campaign meeting, the "most extreme and most radical" positions of his adversaries, he attacked the "extreme left" virulently and multiplied the tributes to the "millions extraordinary women across America "fighting for" the right to life ".
"Every child is a sacred gift from God," the former New York businessman added to protesters with crucifixes or placards. "Human rights start in the womb."
In 47 years of existence, the "March for Life" had never welcomed an American president. Approaching the November 3 poll, where he will run for a second term, Donald Trump, who has never sought to widen his electoral base, knows that he must play tight with the white Evangelical Christians, who had voted to 81 % for him in 2016.
With the appointments of Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court - two "extraordinary" judges, in his words - who cemented the institution in conservatism, it galvanized anti-abortion activists.
The Louisiana test
Their dream? Question the "Roe v. Wade" judgment, legalizing voluntary termination of pregnancy in all the United States since 1973. Or, failing this, authorize states to adopt very restrictive laws on abortion.
The first litmus test will take place in March, when the Supreme Court examines a law passed in 2014 in Louisiana, a conservative state in the South. The text provides for requiring doctors who volunteer to perform abortions to have a license to practice in a hospital located less than 50 kilometers from the place of the operation.
According to defenders of the right to abortion, these conditions are too drastic and only a doctor and a clinic can continue to practice abortions throughout the state. A very insufficient number, they stress, for the approximately 10,000 abortions performed each year.
Louisiana justifies this measure by mentioning the risks of complications and the need, in the event of a problem, to be able to transfer patients to neighboring hospitals.
The decision will assess whether the temple of American law has changed position on this very sensitive subject. In June 2016, six months before the coming real estate tycoon, she ruled a similar law passed in Texas illegal.
With AFP
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