Headlines: Supreme Court lets Texas enforce anti-abortion law
Pro-abortion protesters march through the streets of Edinburgh, Texas towards City Hall on September 1, 2021 © AP / The Monitor / Joel Martinez
Text by: Marie Normand Follow
8 mins
Advertising
Read more
"
It's a terrible day for Texas,
" indignant a women's rights activist interviewed by the
Texas Tribune
. Since Wednesday morning, Senate Bill 8 (SB8) came into effect. The nine judges of the Supreme Court have not ruled on the constitutionality of this controversial text, voted in this state in the southern United States. But while waiting to examine it, they refuse to
suspend its application
, as demanded by defenders of the right to abortion.
The highest American court invokes "
questions of complex and new procedures
".
The court was very divided on the issue, insists
Politico
.
Five judges voted against the suspension, that is to say all the conservative judges - including three appointed by Donald Trump during his mandate.
All but one, the head of the Supreme Court, who joined the three progressive judges without tipping the scales.
The Death of Roe c.
Wade
Result: Texans no longer have the right to abort, even in cases of rape or incest, from the first heartbeat of the embryo, usually detected around six weeks of pregnancy.
"
So early that many people do not yet know they are pregnant,
”regrets the
New York Times
. Six weeks is sometimes even "
too early for some doctors to offer an abortion
", comments the columnist. The latter wonders if this means the death of Roe v. Wade, that famous Supreme Court ruling that guaranteed American women 's right to abortion nearly 50 years ago.
The Texas Tribune
describes, after the text came into force on Wednesday, almost empty waiting rooms in the few clinics that still performed abortion.
"
Only 12 patients presented
" to Whole Women's Health, "
and the doctors at the clinic had to refuse at least three of them because cardiac activity was detected
."
The
New York Times
columnist
recalls that a wave of similar laws has swept the country since 2019, but none had so far been applied.
Premium of 10
000 to $ denouncement
The journalist qualifies this law as "
diabolical
". Its most notable feature? It is not the government that is responsible for applying it, but individuals. These funds,
Politico
recalls
, are encouraged to denounce and prosecute those who help a woman to have an abortion. Bonuses of 10,000 dollars are even provided for informers. This aspect of the text makes the law complicated to challenge in federal court, according to legal experts. Unlike similar laws passed in 12 other conservative states, the text has not yet been able to be changed.
For the
Austin American-Statesman
, Texas "
uses harassment to circumvent the rule of law
." "
Incapable of outright prohibiting abortion, elected officials preferred to block access by encouraging people to sue each other,
" regrets the columnist. This provision is also very dissuasive. In clinics, for example, "staff
have been advised not to send patients out of state for fear that it will be seen as abortion assistance,
" the
Texas Tribune
explains
. Traveling out of state: an option that is "beyond the
means
" for many patients
anyway
, the newspaper explains.
New York crippled by torrential rains
The news in the United States, it is also hurricane Ida which continues its course.
It's pouring downpours on the east coast.
New York finds itself partially paralyzed and deplores at least thirteen dead.
On its website, the
New York Times
reports that "
city buses have turned into amphibious vehicles
" and water rushed onto the subway platforms "
as if it were a waterfall.
,
flooding the tracks below
”.
"Almost all of the city's metro lines have been closed and Mayor Bill de Blasio has declared a state of emergency
."
"
In some parts of Brooklyn, cars move through lakes of muddy brown water, their headlights lighting up the waves that form in front of their wheels and splash at the feet of houses,
" adds the daily.
The matches of the US Open were interrupted due to water infiltration in a stadium in Queens, yet covered.
These floods frightened the east coast, but not everyone visibly.
The
New York Times
refers to this other video in which a man quietly smokes a hookah, lying on an inflatable mattress, in a flooded street.
Newsletter
Receive all international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
United States
Health and medicine
Womens rights
Newspaper