Nearly four hundred American jurists have decided, at the risk of incurring the reprobation of some of their fellow citizens, to publicly reveal that they have resorted to an abortion, by joining an ongoing procedure before the United States Supreme Court. . "I want the Court to know how legal and sanitary access to abortion has made my career possible and changed my life", wrote one of the 368 signatories in an argument sent Monday to the nine judges of the Supreme Court.
The highest court in the United States, which in 1973 legalized women's right to terminate a pregnancy, recently agreed to consider a Louisiana law accused of restricting access to abortion. The case is a test case for the Court, deeply reworked since the election of Donald Trump.
Before the hearing, scheduled for March 4, judges, prosecutors, lawyers and academics explained to the Court that they had used an abortion (abortion) when they were minors, students, early career, in a toxic relationship, or for medical reasons.
"I fear reprisals"
Their stories are recounted anonymously in a long legal document, which includes the names and positions of the signatories, including a former New York Supreme Court justice and prestigious university professors.
These experts in law "Feel the power, the means and even the obligation to rise up with their names and stories for those who still can not do it", although for some, this approach has "A huge personal and professional cost"according to this document.
Abortion remains a very divisive subject in the United States. According to a Pew Research Center poll from 2018, 58% of Americans believe that abortion should be legal, and 37% want it banned.
"It is absolutely terrifying to identify oneself publicly on such a personal subject and can often be a source of opprobrium", says one of the jurists.
"I fear reprisals from my colleagues and, more broadly, from my community in South Carolina, where many people are very religious and opposed to abortion," writes another. "I suspect that a large number (of people) will consider me differently – morally inferior – when I learn that I have used abortion. "
For fear of the consequences, an official in the Ministry of Justice and a student whose career is yet to be built joined the procedure anonymously "And represent all the other streams, past or future, of the profession for which exposure would be too dangerous".
In France, in the early 1970s, the feminist manifesto "343 sluts" had contributed to the tipping of public opinion and the adoption of a law legalizing abortion.
