Supreme Court to review Texas abortion law on November 1

It is a hearing that will have enormous consequences. The US Supreme Court announced Friday that it would review Texas’ abortion law on November 1, with the high court refusing to suspend application of the controversial law at the same time.

The administration of President Joe Biden had seized Monday the institution at the top of the judicial pyramid of the United States in order to block this law which prohibits any voluntary termination of pregnancy as soon as the heartbeat of the embryo is detectable, or around six weeks of pregnancy, when most women do not yet know they are pregnant. An exception is provided for in cases of danger to the health of the mother, but not in cases of rape or incest.

Denial bonus, according to detractors

The jurisprudence of the Supreme Court guarantees the right of women to abort as long as the fetus is not viable, that is to say around 22 weeks of pregnancy. But the text of Texas has a unique device: it entrusts citizens “exclusively” with the task of enforcing the measure by encouraging them to file a complaint against organizations or people who help women to have illegal abortions. This device was created especially to complicate appeals by making it impossible to lodge a complaint against a State.

Under Texas law, people bringing charges against people facilitating abortions beyond six weeks can receive at least $ 10,000 in “restitution” if convicted. Critics of the text see it as a “bonus” for denouncing.

The Supreme Court, where the conservative judges are in the majority, had already been seized for the first time and had invoked these “new questions of procedure” to refuse, on September 1, to block the entry into force of the law. She had not commented on the substance.

The right to abortion attacked from all sides

The federal government then entered the legal arena, filing a lawsuit against Texas on its behalf. According to Joe Biden’s government, the Texas law is “clearly unconstitutional” because it runs counter to the iconic Roe V. Wade judgment of 1973.

It will be the first case to be heard by the Supreme Court since former President Donald Trump gave it a majority of six out of nine Tory judges. In the process, they will consider an appeal from Mississippi, which asked the Supreme Court to return to Roe V. Wade. Were the court to reverse this landmark ruling, abortion could then become illegal in more than half of the conservative-controlled US states.

The ball would then be in the court of Congress, which could attempt to legislate to cement the right to abortion. It remains to be seen whether a simple majority vote in the Senate or three-fifths (60 votes out of 100) would suffice. The Democrats could, in theory, try to force their way to overcome parliamentary obstruction (“fillibuster”). They would probably have to convince centrist Joe Manchin or moderate Republicans Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski for that.

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