They are a few dozen activists Tuesday morning before the Supreme Court: on the left, women say they are “in a state of shock” in the face of the right to abortion more than ever threatened in the United States; on the right, other demonstrators welcome a historic decision for the conservative movement.
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At the foot of the tall marble building as imposing as its decisions on social issues in the United States are, the signs face each other: “abortion is a human right” on one side, “human rights for all, for born and unborn humans” on the other.
“I’m in shock,” Tarra Kuroda, a 47-year-old woman, almost the age of the “Roe v. Wade”, which authorized abortion throughout the United States in 1973 and which the Supreme Court is preparing to render null and void, according to a draft decision revealed Monday evening.
“I have two young daughters, and I am also here for them, (…) to protect their future”, she says, a sign “My body, my choice” in her hand. Around her are present many journalists in front of the steps of this white building which faces the Congress, in the heart of Washington.
Of this draft decision, not final, which inflamed the American political sphere on Monday evening, Tarra hopes that he will “bring people together for the midterm elections (scheduled for November) to elect people who, hopefully, will will vote in favor” of a law authorizing abortion at the federal level.
“I hear these young people talking, and these are the same discussions that we have had for years”, regrets this stay-at-home mother. “I remember the history books when I was younger, these women in the 60s fighting for this, and it’s sad that we have to continue” this struggle.
This right to abort “is taken away because of the religious beliefs of a very conservative Supreme Court,” regrets Lynn Hart, 70, who says she had an illegal abortion as a teenager before she could do it legally.
“I am horrified that this decision would take away this right for my grandsons and my granddaughters”, she regrets under the gray sky of the federal capital.
On the other side of the metal barriers, in front of the groups of a little astonished college students who visit Capitol Hill with their teachers, a handful of demonstrators chant in a loop “abortion is oppression”.
The text published Monday by the Politico newspaper, “it’s just a draft, so there is still a lot of work”, says Archie Smith, member of a “progressive” group against the right to abortion – there are few Tuesday morning here. “For the ‘pro-life’ movement, this is just the first step in the right direction.”
For this 22-year-old man, “it’s not enough to make it illegal” – even if “we would like it very much” -, but it is necessary to “make it unnecessary” and “create a culture of life in America”.
“We are going to take this fight to the United States Congress, just opposite”, launches, on the left side, a woman in a megaphone, already projecting herself into the political debate to come.
Around her, the small crowd shouts relentlessly at the cameras “my body, my choice.”