ANTI ABORTION LAWS ARE SEGREGATION(IST)
US sports stars stand up for abortion rights
Megan Rapinoe, Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi are among more than 500 US female athletes who have petitioned the Supreme Court. The state of Mississippi wants to ban the right to abortion in the US.
OF WOMEN BY MISOGYNIST WHITE MALES
Megan Rapinoe at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala
More than 500 female athletes, coaches and sports associations have written to the US Supreme Court, the highest court in the US, in support of the right to abortion.
Without the right to terminate a pregnancy, "the physical stresses of forced pregnancy and childbirth would undermine athletes' ability to reach their full potential," the letter states. "Pregnancy fundamentally alters a woman's body, interferes with and potentially impedes an athlete's access to higher education, elite competition, and a professional athletic career. Female athletes must have the power to decide if and when to dedicate their bodies to sport, pregnancy or both."
Known collectively as Athlete Amici, the athletes signed a formal appeal to argue that the right to abortion is essential for women athletes to pursue their sports at the same level that men are afforded. The group urged the court to reject a Mississippi law that would ban
most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
Rapinoe: 'Outrageous and un-American'
Signatories include football superstar Megan Rapinoe, women's national team captain Becky Sauerbrunn, two-time water polo gold medalist Ashleigh Johnson and basketball stars Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi.
Bird, who is married to Rapinoe, and Taurasi won Olympic gold with the US team in Tokyo. A total of 26 female Olympic athletes and 73 professional athletes supported the appeal, along with various representative bodies such as the US player unions in football and basketball.
"As female athletes and people in sports, we need to have the power to make important decisions about our bodies and have control over our reproduction," Rapinoe said. Laws restricting abortion rights were "outrageous and un-American," the 36-year-old former world footballer said.
The Supreme Court on Monday scheduled arguments in a case from the state of Mississippi for December 1. In the case, the state is seeking to reverse the US Supreme Court's landmark 1973 decision that made abortions legal nationwide. Mississippi wants to ban all abortions after the 15th week. Exceptions are to be made only for medical emergencies or in the case of "severe foetal abnormalities."
Mississippi's state government had tightened the course on abortion rights after conservative jurist Amy Coney Barrett was appointed to the Supreme Court last year shortly before President Donald Trump was voted out of office. She gave the conservatives a majority of six votes to three in the Supreme Court.
Texas doctor performs abortion in test of
new restrictive law
Issued on: 20/09/2021 - 18:02
Washington (AFP)
A Texas doctor has revealed that he performed an abortion on a woman more than six weeks pregnant in what could be a test case for the constitutionality of the state's new law restricting the procedure.
Alan Braid, in a column published in The Washington Post over the weekend, said he provided an abortion on September 6 to a woman who was still in her first trimester but was "beyond the state's new limit."
The "Texas Heartbeat Act," which took effect September 1, bans abortion once a heartbeat can be detected, which usually takes place at six weeks -- before many women even know they are pregnant. It makes no exceptions for rape or incest.
"I acted because I had a duty of care to this patient, as I do for all patients, and because she has a fundamental right to receive this care," Braid, who has been practicing medicine for 50 years, wrote.
"I fully understood that there could be legal consequences -- but I wanted to make sure that Texas didn't get away with its bid to prevent this blatantly unconstitutional law from being tested," he added.
In the landmark 1973 case Roe v. Wade, the US Supreme Court guaranteed the right to an abortion so long as the fetus is not viable outside the womb, which is usually not until the 22nd to 24th week of pregnancy.
But the court, which was shifted to the right with the confirmation of three conservative justices nominated by Donald Trump, refused to block the Texas law from going into force.
The bill passed by Republican lawmakers in Texas, the country's second largest state, allows members of the public to sue doctors who perform abortions after six weeks or anyone who facilitates the procedure.
Abortion providers and others seeking to protect a woman's right to an abortion generally file suit against state prosecutors seeking to enforce restrictive abortion laws.
But Texas managed to avoid close judicial scrutiny by the Supreme Court because of the way the law was framed.
Braid's admission means that if he is prosecuted he could contest the constitutionality of the Texas law and force a court to rule on whether it violates Roe v. Wade.
The Justice Department has also filed suit against Texas, following through on a pledge by Democratic President Joe Biden to fight attempts by Republican-led states to restrict abortion.
© 2021 AFP
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