The way forward for reproductive rights

Increasing attacks on women’s reproductive rights, including greater restrictions on abortion, are taking place in dozens of U.S. states as well as nationally. The threat that the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision will be overturned has grown more ominous with the Supreme Court’s April decision in Gonzalez vs. Carhart, which upheld the 2003 federal ban on certain types of post-first-trimester abortions.

The high court’s reactionary decision threw out decades of legal precedent by allowing no provision to protect women’s health and safety. The five to four majority ruling also blurred the distinction between pre- and post-viability, and thus opened the door to further restrictions on abortion rights. “Viability” has been defined as the point at which the fetus is able to live outside the womb.

The Supreme Court’s April decision has been roundly condemned by women’s-rights activists for its paternalistic and condescending opinions about women.

The concurring opinion, written by Justice Clarence Thomas and joined by Antonin Scalia, baldly stated that “[t]he Court’s abortion jurisprudence ... including ... Roe v. Wade ... has no basis in the Constitution.” (www.supremecourtus.gov)

The Guttmacher Institute reports that more than 1,000 pieces of state legislation relating to reproductive rights were introduced in the first quarter of 2007. Most of them are anti-choice. Abortion bans that would take effect upon the overturning of Roe vs. Wade (“trigger laws”) were introduced in 11 states and passed in North Dakota and Mississippi. Laws increasing funding to abstinence-only programs and anti-choice “crisis pregnancy centers” were introduced in 15 states and passed in six.

Twenty-three states introduced laws for state-mandated counseling or lectures prior to abortions, with four states enacting the measures. Many included a compulsory “waiting period” for women before having an abortion.

Laws restricting young women’s right to choose were introduced in 13 states and enacted in three. Thirty-five states now require minor women to obtain parental consent and/or notification.

Anti-choice ballot initiatives are also under way in several states.

Most state legislatures have adjourned for 2007. Most of the reactionary bills will not be carried over to next year. However, the Supreme Court’s April decision will make 2008 a free-for-all in most states, with even more legislation introduced to severely restrict or prohibit women’s right to choose abortion. The green light from the high court has encouraged the right-wing campaign to outlaw all abortions, whether wholesale or piecemeal.

While the right to abortion is under constant attack, those who claim to care about the “pre-born”—a term used by anti-choice forces who supposedly value life above all else—do absolutely nothing for children once they are born. These abortion foes are never heard demanding free health care and quality education, affordable housing or any other necessity to sustain life. Many are comfortable being “pro-life”—and for the death penalty and the war on Iraq.

The thin veneer of their “pro-life” label is easy to see through and exposes what they really are – anti-woman, racist and sexist to the core.

Yet a new tactic in their campaign is the claim they are the “true feminists” who really care about women. Their “feminism” defines women as unable to think and decide for themselves, in need of protection and sheltering in order to fulfill their “natural role” as mothers and nurturers.

Anti-abortion tactics and racism

The religious right did not initially use the issue of abortion as the centerpiece of its reactionary program. The rise of Jerry Falwell, the “Moral Majority” and associated right-wing political movements in the late 1970s and during the Reagan era put abortion rights into the spotlight. But according to religion expert Randall Balmer, “The [r]eligious [r]ight arose as a political movement for the purpose ... of defending racial discrimination at Bob Jones University and at other segregated schools.” (Thy Kingdom Come, 2006)

Faced with judicial setbacks in maintaining racist segregation, right-wing leaders held a meeting and conference call in the early 1980s to discuss a new plan of attack. Balmer states: “Several callers made suggestions, and then ... a voice on the end of one of the lines said, ‘How about abortion?’ And that is how abortion was cobbled into the political agenda of the [r]eligious [r]ight.”

It’s no surprise that a May 2007 Supreme Court decision, Ledbetter vs. Goodyear,essentially legalized pay inequity and gutted Title VII for women workers and all workers of color. Title VII is the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which laid the basis for many equality struggles as it outlawed “discrimination in public facilities, in government, and in employment” against people of color and women.

Working-class women and women of oppressed nationalities today face profound problems in a system that is legally stacked against them—whether it is the daily struggle to survive on low wages while trying to pay for costly rent, transportation, child care, high utility bills and food prices, medical care and education; experiencing constant racism, sexism and anti-lesbian oppression on top of that; and on top of that having to deal with any unplanned, unwanted pregnancy in the face of every kind of anti-choice obstacle placed in their way.

What can working-class and oppressed women do to safeguard the right to choose, achieve equality with men in capitalist society, and move forward instead of being constantly pushed back by reactionary judges and legislators and the right-wing social movements behind them?

Moving forward for reproductive rights

The Democratic Party is not the answer. Like the many broken promises Democrats made to end the war in Iraq, so too have they failed women, especially in the area of reproductive rights.

In a June 14 Women’s eNews article. Allison Stevens wrote: “Even though the House and Senate are now controlled by Democrats—a party that officially backs the right to abortion—the majority of lawmakers still oppose full reproductive rights, according to NARAL Pro-Choice America, the Washington-based pro-choice lobby. Of the 435 members of the House of Representatives, 219—a slight majority—currently oppose abortion rights, and another 51 members have a mixed record on the subject. In the Senate, only 35 of the 100 senators have strong pro-choice records; 48 strongly oppose abortion and 17—including Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada—have mixed views.” (www.womensenews.org)

Leaders of some U.S. women’s groups have placed high hopes on a Democratic-controlled Congress to preserve women’s rights and abortion rights. But Stevens quotes Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women as well as a spokesperson from the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation, as being forced to acknowledge the truth about the Democratic-controlled Congress in which they had placed such high hopes for preserving women’s rights and abortion rights in particular.

Advocates of equality and reproductive freedom for all women face a daunting task 34 years after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion as part of a woman’s right to medical privacy. The right to choose abortion was a victory forced from the high court in 1973 after years of militant struggles against imperialist war, racism and segregation, and for women’s and lesbian, gay, bi and trans liberation. Women and their allies marched by the millions to demand safe, legal abortion. They recognized that liberation and equality could not be achieved unless women had the right to determine the destiny of their own bodies and their own lives.

So electoral and legislative arenas, political lobbying and online petition campaigns to try to persuade politicians to protect women’s reproductive rights are not enough. Women of all nationalities must continue to take up the banner for equality and reproductive freedom for every woman. These demands must include no forced sterilizations, the right to LGBT marriage and adoption, as well as the social programs and supports necessary to raise children if they are desired so that the basic human needs of families are met.

A strong movement in the streets—demonstrating, protesting, sitting in and other actions—is what will force even a right-wing Supreme Court to back down.

This struggle is beginning to rejuvenate. Activists from around the country will converge on Birmingham, Ala., July 14-22 to defend clinics against “Operation Save America,” formerly known as “Operation Rescue.” Organizers with the National Women’s Fightback Network, an affiliate of the International Action Center, are publicizing the struggle in Alabama nationally and helping to get the word out for solidarity and assistance.

The National Women’s Fightback Network is also issuing a call for women around the country to mark Women’s Equality Day—Aug. 26—by demonstrating for women’s equality and reproductive freedom, and against the sexism, racism, homophobia and transphobia, and poverty that put such dreadful limits on women’s lives.

Activists with the NWFN are urging women in cities and towns across the country to call demonstrations, hold meetings or have other actions on Aug. 24-27. Women in Detroit, Boston and other cities are beginning to discuss demonstrations to support the struggle for reproductive rights and to revive a militant women’s movement in the U.S. that is crucial to winning the war at home against the working class and oppressed.

For more information on the August 24-27 Women’s Equality Day Call to Action, contact the National Women’s Fightback Network at [email protected].

The writer is a leader of the Detroit Action Network For Reproductive Rights (DANFORR).