(ZENIT News – FIDES / Rome, 10.22.2024).- «Both are against life – the one who throws out migrants and the one who kills children». «I cannot decide. I am not American and I will not go to vote there. But let it be clear: sending migrants away, denying them the ability to work and refusing them hospitality is a sin, and it is grave.» Abortion, on the other hand, means «killing a human being. Whether you like the word or not, it is murder». This was Pope Francis’ response to a question about the moral dilemmas posed to American Catholic voters about who to vote for in the upcoming US presidential elections.
On abortion and immigration, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris seem to hold opposing positions: the former is against abortion and supports draconian measures against illegal immigrants, the latter is for abortion and a policy of greater openness towards immigrants. But is this really the case?
To understand the subject of the current abortion debate in the United States, it is necessary to take a step back. On June 24, 2022, the Federal Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision, which stated that the U.S.
Constitution recognizes the right to abortion even in the absence of health problems of the woman or fetus and in the absence of circumstances other than the woman’s free choice. The 2022 ruling de facto rejected the right to abortion at the federal level and returned the issue to state legislatures. Trump, on the one hand, cites the fact that he appointed three Supreme Court justices who were part of the majority of the court that voted in 2022 to abolish the constitutional right to abortion, and on the other hand, he says he wants to leave the decision on this to individual states.
«My view is now that we have abortion where everybody wanted it from a legal standpoint, the states will determine by vote or legislation, or perhaps both, and whatever they decide must be the law of the land», he said. In the controversy with the Democratic candidate, who accused him during the September 10 TV debate that Trump would «sign a national abortion ban» if re-elected, the former president responded: «That’s a lie. I’m not signing a ban, and there’s no reason to sign a ban, because we’ve gotten what everybody wanted, Democrats, Republicans and everybody else, and every legal scholar wanted it to be brought back into the states.» When asked by moderator Linsey Davis whether he would veto a national ban, he replied: «I don’t have to,» but did not say that he would veto a national abortion ban if it were passed by Congress.
But then he stressed, «Everyone knows that I would not support a federal ban on abortion under any circumstances, and I would even veto it because it is up to the states to decide based on the will of their voters.» Trump also wrote this in an all-caps message posted on social media when his vice presidential candidate JD Vance (R-Ohio) was asked about the issue during the vice presidential debate. The former president, meanwhile, also criticized some of the state’s more restrictive abortion laws, particularly Florida’s six-week clause, and said he favors exceptions in cases of rape, incest or when the mother’s life is in danger.
Trump called the Florida ban a «terrible thing and a terrible mistake.» In an interview with NBC News in September, he reiterated that six weeks is «too short» and said he would «vote that we need more than six weeks.» Because of these comments, Trump was criticized by the most conservative part of his electorate for supporting a referendum to approve an amendment to Florida’s constitution, scheduled for November. The constitutional amendment proposed by Florida’s reproductive rights advocates does not specify the number of weeks within which an abortion can be performed, but provides that access to abortion in the state is available until the fetus is viable, i.e., approximately 23-25 weeks of pregnancy. Trump quickly backtracked, saying he would vote «no» on the abortion amendment, meaning that if it is rejected in November, Florida’s six-week ban would remain in place.
Trump’s wife has since publicly stated that she supports women’s freedom of choice. «Without a doubt, there is no room for compromise when it comes to this essential right that all women possess from birth, individual freedom. What does ‘my body, my choice’ really mean?» she said in a video posted on social media. Democratic candidate Kamala Harris said at a campaign event in Savannah that her fight was «a fight for the future and it is a fight for freedom, like the freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own body and not have her government tell her what to do.» On her campaign website, Harris promises that if elected president, she will «never allow a national abortion ban to become law.» And «when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive freedom nationwide, she will sign it». Specifically, she supports the passage by Congress of a federal law to protect abortion rights, to counteract the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision that overturned the historic Roe v. Wade ruling recognizing the constitutional right to abortion.
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