Photo: Andrew Harnik Agence France-Presse Activists for and against abortion demonstrate outside the U.S. Supreme Court building on April 24.
Danny Kemp – Agence France-Presse in Jacksonville
Published yesterday at 9:34 a.m. Updated yesterday at 10:48 p.m.
- United States
“It was Trump who did this”: determined to fully exploit this angle of political attack against the former Republican president, the American vice-president, Kamala Harris, went to campaign in Florida on Wednesday, where the abortion is now prohibited beyond six weeks.
“We have experienced a complete attack, state after state, against reproductive freedoms and we know who is responsible . It was former president Donald Trump who did this,” said the Democrat, President Joe Biden’s running mate for the November election, from Jacksonville.
Since Wednesday, the southeastern state, the third largest in the United States in terms of population, has banned voluntary terminations of pregnancies after six weeks. At this point, “many women don’t even know they are pregnant,” said the vice-president, the first woman and first African-American and Asian-American person in this position.
Joe Biden spoke in a press release of a “nightmare” for which he blames Donald Trump.
The Democrats are trying to make abortion one of the key issues of the 2024 presidential election, believing that it is a way to win votes against the 77-year-old tycoon.
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“Under Donald Trump…”
“Florida was a refuge for abortion in the south of the United States”, where other states have already decided to ban or severely restrict this act, laments Ryan Moran, a nurse in a clinic in Jacksonville which performs abortions, deploring a “dark day”.
The former Republican president regularly congratulates himself on being at the origin of the spectacular turnaround of jurisprudence of the Supreme Court in June 2022.
The institution, to which he had given a very conservative composition, had then shattered the federal protection of law on abortion, returning responsibility to the States.
Since then, restrictions or bans have been put in place in around twenty States. This was the case of Arizona, a southwestern state that could prove decisive in the presidential election.
Under Donald Trump, it would be normal for women to be monitored and punished by the government
— Kamala Harris
The local Senate, however, voted on Wednesday to repeal a law which prohibited almost all abortions, from the moment of conception. This text, which had remained dormant since 1864, was resurrected by the State Supreme Court.
Last week, the Democratic president also visited Florida , a state won by the Republicans in the last two presidential elections.
In her speech, the 59-year-old vice-president recalled recent statements by the former Republican president, who, in an interview, indicated that he would leave the field open to states wishing to place pregnant women under surveillance or prosecute bring to justice those who have abortions.
“Under Donald Trump, it would be normal for women to be monitored and punished by the government,” she declared.
Kamala Harris said that if re-elected, the Republican would support the passage of a law banning abortion throughout the United States.
“Smoke us out”
The billionaire suggested that he was not in favor of such legislation.
“Let him stop smoking us, because we all know that if he gets the chance, Donald Trump will enact a federal ban on abortion,” counterattacked the vice-president on Wednesday.
Photo: Joe Raedle Getty Images via Agence France-Presse
By going to Florida, the two Democrats brought the issue of abortion rights almost to the doorstep of Donald Trump, who owns a vast property in Palm Beach, in the south of the state.
The Republican governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, is behind the ban on abortion beyond six weeks. He ran unsuccessfully in the Republican primary.
In April, the Florida Supreme Court confirmed the entry into force of this law, but it had in the same time returned the final decision to the voters.
The latter will vote in November, at the same time as the presidential and legislative elections, on an amendment guaranteeing the right to abortion in the State.
Voluntary interruption pregnancy has almost always been a politically hot topic in the United States, although, according to polls, the majority of Americans are in favor of the right to abortion.