Abortion in the United States: Supreme Court allows courts to intervene against Texas law

“Abortion is a health service”: pro-abortion rally in front of the United States Supreme Court in Washington, December 2, 2021. AP - Andrew Harnik

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2 min

The Supreme Court once again refuses to suspend Texas law, one of the most restrictive in the country, which prohibits voluntary termination of pregnancy beyond 6 weeks.

The court still leaves a door ajar to advocates of abortion. 

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With our correspondent in Washington,

Texan women have had virtually no access to abortion for a hundred days, and this will continue for at least some time to come.

As in its first decision, when the law had entered into force, the Supreme Court, now with a conservative majority, refuses to suspend its application.

But it allows abortion advocates to attack the law and the Texan authorities to court.

To take shelter, the State of Texas has devised a mechanism that entrusts the application of this law to private persons, for a fee.

There will therefore be legal proceedings before the federal courts and decisions will be made.

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The Court's conservative judges ready to revisit 50 years of jurisprudence

Progressive judges, in a separate text, say they hope this law will be quickly blocked.

But these court decisions are likely to end up in the Supreme Court again.

For the time being, its case law guarantees the right to abortion until the viability of the fetus, ie up to 22 or 24 weeks of pregnancy.

But in another case, that of Mississippi state law, which limits the time limit to 15 weeks, the court's conservative justices have made it clear that they are prepared to reverse this case law that dates back nearly 50 years, or at least to limit its scope and entrust its supervision to the States.

This is what the most conservative of them, like Texas, expect.

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• United States

• Womens rights