The rulings of the US Supreme Court unleash terror: after abortion, will they go against other freedoms?

The nine US Supreme Court justices began their vacation on Friday, but before leaving they left a deep mark on the country with historic rulings on ultraconservative stamp which shocked much of a society that is now afraid.

Fear that the supreme court, which ruled against abortion and climate change and favored the carrying of arms and the freedom to pray anywhere, will now go for more: same-sex marriage, contraception, church separation and status, in vitro fertilization, among other sensitive issues that could be suppressed or limited.

The Court has fallen a great discredit. Only 25% of citizens trust the institution, an all-time low, according to a recent Gallup poll.

Furthermore, Americans are already preparing for what might happen Consultations with law firms specializing in the rights of the LGTBQ communitywith increased vasectomies and acceleration of the IVF process, among other reactions.

“There is a lot of fear and confusion,” he said Clarione Mary Ziegler, professor of law at Florida State University. “The truth is that not even the experts know what comes next.”

Sensitive defects

Rachel Rebouché, a Temple University law professor, said Clarione “These rulings question longstanding precedents that have protected US constitutional rights relating to privacy, intimacy and family. I fear it has raised fears about what will come next, not to mention the complex access to abortion and the legal landscape that is taking shape. “

The court closed its year of sessions with several rulings of 6 conservative votes against 3 liberals, ushering in the far-right majority that former President Donald Trump managed to impose with the appointment of three judges of that tendency after the death of two magistrates and the resignation of another. .

With a series of sentences that shocked the country, the Court abrogated the right to abortion established in 1973, removing the federal umbrella and give back to the States the power to legislate as they please on this delicate issue.

Also, favored the free port of arms at a time when the country is calling for restrictions to stop the killings. They also backed a high school football manager who pressured his players to pray with him on the pitch after games and approved that religious schools can receive state funding if there is no public school nearby.

It also limited federal means to combat global warming, in a ruling that complicates the White House’s regulatory efforts to curb climate change, in a decision deemed “devastating” by President Joe Biden. All this marks a progress that seems unstoppable.

urgent questions

In recent days, law firms have received thousands of calls from same-sex couples concerned about the future of their legal status or custody of their children, community rights attorney Sydney Duncan told the AP. LGTBQ of Birmingham. .

Although the ruling against abortion says nothing about the right to marriage acquired in 2015, the Court’s fear of this trend leads them to take precautions. “There are a lot of people who are afraid and I think they are right,” Duncan said. Adoption procedures for same-sex couples are also accelerated.

In another sign of things to come, the state of Alabama has already cited the abortion ruling to enforce a law banning medical treatment for transgender young people. And so hundreds of limits could arise in the states.

In another trend emerging from the abortion sentence, many men seek vasectomy procedures, consulted by urologists Washington Post. One of them, for example, claimed to have had 4 or 5 consultations a day on the subject, but that now the number has grown to 18 a day.

Doctors in fear

The court’s decision on abortion “already affects the health care available to all women in the United States.

Doctors in some states have fear of treating some miscarriages or extrauterine pregnancies for fear of being prosecuted. It is also expected, for example, that some officials will closely investigate miscarriages or any miscarriages as a possible offense.

At the same time, political and social divisions will deepen. Some states are even expected to be willing to stop their residents from ordering birth control pills online or from traveling to other states to have an abortion.

“This is likely to create a new interstate conflict in the United States,” said Ziegler, author of “Abortion and the New Law in America, The Legal History of Roe Vs Wade.”

The expert Rebouché adds that everything indicates that the Court is preparing “to question other fundamental rights protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. He says several times that the opinion applies only to the right to abortion. But the reasoning he explains – history and tradition since the earliest U.S. laws on the subject – in this same ruling suggests that contraceptive rights and marital equality could face the same fate as Roe v. Wade “.

political and social crack

Ziegler believes that the abortion ruling will have more consequences: “This approach would mean that there is no right to same-sex marriage, even interracial marriage or contraception. The Court tries to limit its ruling by emphasizing that only abortion involves fetal slaughter, but we know that some magistrates want to go further and the logic of the Court’s ruling goes in that direction.

As the more conservative sectors celebrate, fear of the future overwhelms the more progressive sectors and is an issue that is sure to have an impact on the legislative elections in November, where the ruling party is lagging behind in all polls and could lose a majority in both. chambers of Congress.

The social and political rift is becoming more pronounced and the Democrats see these measures as an opportunity to mobilize their militants to vote.

The head of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, warned that the court rulings, which she called “extremist”, were “aimed at punishing and controlling Americans” and that they were “the beginning of the radical Republican Party in its goal of restrict all access to contraception and equality in marriage. ”Democrats, he said, must continue to expand rights.

However, it won’t be easy to get rid of the main concern Americans have today, which is inflation and the state of the economy. On this issue, President Biden is facing his worst moment: 85% say that the country is going in the wrong direction (53% believed it a year ago), 79% believe that the economy is not doing well and 69% that the president mismanages the economy.

The White House hopes the next debate on abortion and reduced rights will energize the more progressive base. But it would be very rare for voters to neglect their pockets when they go to the polls.

Washington, correspondent

CB