YOU PUT YOUR BABIES IN THE WOMB, you will be held accountable!” yelled Steve Corson, tall, bearded and jabbing a finger at women who chanted back: “My body, my choice!”
Corson, 65, from Fredonia, Arizona, took a deep breath and blew into a shofar. Then Nathan Darnell, wearing a “Jesus Christ is king” cap and holding up a cross, grabbed a megaphone. “You guys are demon-possessed!” declared the 19-year-old from Haymarket, Virginia. “Every child has a right to life.” Suddenly, Darnell was surrounded by abortion rights protesters brandishing placards. He kept talking. “You guys are evil. The downfall of America is because of every one of you.”
The national day of prayer last Thursday was anything but a solemn occasion outside the supreme court in Washington, where hours earlier an unscalable black fence had been erected, reminiscent of the one that surrounded the US Capitol after the 6 January insurrection.
The fury was unleashed by a leaked draft opinion showing the nation’s highest court provisionally voted to overturn Roe v Wade, the 1973 ruling that effectively legalised abortion. It was a political earthquake revealing American women to be perilously close to losing a fundamental right.
It was also a milestone in America’s journey from United States to divided states. The likely demise of Roe v Wade could drive the biggest wedge yet between what appear to be two irreconcilable nations coexisting under one flag.
Liberal states would become sanctuaries for women seeking abortions and saturated with providers, conservative states would turn into deserts that ban the procedure and criminalise doctors who provide it. Some wonder if the country’s social fabric, frayed by four years of Donald Trump’s presidency, can survive.
Denne historien er fra May 13, 2022-utgaven av The Guardian Weekly.
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Denne historien er fra May 13, 2022-utgaven av The Guardian Weekly.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Finn family murals
The optimism that runs through Finnish artist Tove Jansson's Moomin stories also appears in her public works, now on show in a Helsinki exhibition
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Rumbled How Ali ran rings around apartheid, 50 years ago
Fifty years ago, in a corner of white South Africa, Muhammad Ali already seemed a miracle-maker.
Trudeau faces 'iceberg revolt'as calls grow for PM to quit
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Lost Maya city revealed through laser mapping
After swapping machetes and binoculars for computer screens and laser mapping, a team of researchers have discovered a lost Maya city containing temple pyramids, enclosed plazas and a reservoir which had been hidden for centuries by the Mexican jungle.
'A civil war' Gangs step up assault on capital
Armed fighters advance into neighbourhoods at the heart of Port-au-Prince as authorities try to restore order
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High emigration and youth unemployment levels belie the mountain nation's global reputation for cheeriness
