President Joe Biden wants to avoid at all costs that the protests against the probable suppression of the right to abortion, advanced by the leaking of the Supreme Court ruling in this regard, lead to a wave of violence. That is why the White House condemned this Monday the escraches that defenders of the free interruption of pregnancy made before the homes of two judges of the High Court, as well as the arson attack in the offices of an anti-abortion organization in Wisconsin.
“The President of the United States firmly believes in the constitutional right to protest. But that should never include violence, threats or vandalism,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki tweeted. And she added that “judges play a very important role in our society and they should be able to do so without worrying about their own safety.”
Police in Madison, Wisconsin, opened an investigation into the fire Sunday at the headquarters of the pro-life organization Family Action in that city. Investigators believe the fire was caused by the throwing of a Molotov cocktail. The authors painted the facade of the office with a threatening message: “If abortions are not safe, then you are not safe either.” There were no injuries.
The Democratic governor of the state, Tony Evers, denounced the attack emphatically: “It was a horrible, horrible incident,” he said. To add that those responsible “should be arrested and brought to trial” for their “unacceptable” action. “The violence it does not solve the problems we face as a country,” he added.
In Washington, about 100 pro-choice protesters marched outside the home of conservative Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh on Saturday before heading to the home of Chief Justice John Roberts. Kavanaugh is among five justices – out of a total of nine – who voted to overturn the Roe v. Wade, with which the court itself guaranteed the right to abortion since 1973. Roberts, for his part, has not yet advanced his vote but has always been inclined to suppress or correct the resolution Roe vs. Wade.
Two elected Republican parliamentarians, Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton and Arizona House member Paul Gosar, also denounced alleged acts of “intimidation” against them. Some actions that, according to them, would have been carried out “with the tacit support of the Biden administration.”
The US president and the Democratic Party hope that the ruling against abortion will mobilize their electorate in the next mid-term legislative elections, which are held in November. But acts of violence and intimidation by defenders of that right do them no favours, so they are just as interested as anyone else in preventing them.
In any case, the issue is shaking up the political and social debate in the United States. And that the sentence is yet to be confirmed by the official opinion of the ruling, which is expected for the month of June.
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