The Supreme Court refused just before midnight on Wednesday to block a Texas law prohibiting most abortions, less than a day after it took effect and became the most restrictive abortion measure in the nation.
The vote was 5 to 4, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. joining the court’s three liberal members in dissent.
The majority opinion was unsigned and consisted of a single long paragraph. It said the abortion providers who had challenged the law in an emergency application to the court had not made their case in the face of “complex and novel” procedural questions. The majority stressed that it was not ruling on the constitutionality of the Texas law and did not mean to limit “procedurally proper challenges” to it.
But the ruling was certain to fuel the hopes of abortion opponents and fears of abortion rights advocates as the court takes up a separate case in its new term this fall to decide whether Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision establishing a constitutional right to the procedure, should be overruled. It also left Texas abortion providers turning away patients as they scrambled to comply with the law, which prohibits abortions after roughly six weeks.
All four dissenting justices filed opinions. » | Adam Liptak, J. David Goodman and Sabrina Tavernise | Wednesday, September 1, 2021
I find the extreme right-wing positions taken in American politics very disturbing. As my followers know by now, I do not like extreme politics, either on the left or right. I believe in the golden middle way wherever and whenever possible. I certainly do not think that politicians should be meddling in medical matters relating to a woman's body. This should be left to the medical doctors and specialists who know far better than judges, law-makers or politicians what course of action is correct for their patients.
One gets the feeling that these legislarors are in serious competition with the Taliban!
We've just had to live through four years of that awful man, Trump, in power; now this draconian law! This law puts medical doctors in an invidious and extremely difficult position. Whilst I do believe that abortions should be avoided whenever possible, there are times when a mother's life is at risk of death if she continues to carry the baby full-term. And what if the mother's death will leave her other children without a mother? Have these lawmakers really thought this through? Also, if a young girl gets raped and ends up pregnant as a result of the rape, she will now have to carry the rapist's child for the full nine-month term and be its mother for the rest of her life. What a burden to bear! Who'd want to be a doctor in Texas? Or a mother in Texas, for that matter!
So what do they want to ban next? Alcohol? Gay weddings? Tobacco?
The Prohibition didn't stop the drinking of alcohol in America in the Twenties and early Thirties. It just drove drinking underground. Until the stupid law had to be repealed. This law is equally stupid. Just as the Prohibition didn't stop drinking; this law will not stop abortions. All it will do is drive the aborting of unwanted babies underground: to the backstreets! We'll be back to primitive ways of aborting babies next, like hot baths, bottles of gin, and knitting needles! I believe that this is how many an unwanted baby was aborted in years gone by. Further, this is a regressive measure because it will hit the poorest in society the most. Rich women will be able to travel out of state for their abortions, or even travel abroad to get them. Such a solution will probably not be affordable for the poorest women in society. In short: The Prohibition didn't stop the drinking of alcohol; and this law will not stop abortions either! It will stop some, but it will cause unspeakable misery for those who will be unable to circumvent the law. "I rest my case."
I feel very sorry to have to say this, but I fear that the USA has seen its finest days. It used to be the wellspring of forward thinking and fresh ideas. Now it seems to have taken on the röle of being the wellspring of oppression and suppression. – © Mark
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