Struggle for women's reproductive rights continues

The year 2006 marked a critical victory for women’s reproductive rights. A grassroots mobilization was able to overturn a right-wing attempt to make abortion illegal in South Dakota.

Despite that victory, on the 34th anniversary of the Jan. 22 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, the struggle to defend and advance the right of all women to control their bodies and their lives—regardless of age, race, economic circumstances, place of residence, marital status or sexuality—continues on many fronts.

The biggest potential threat to legal abortion in 2007 comes from a Supreme Court decision due this spring. The justices will rule on the legality of the so-called Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. The Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 in 2000 that the same exact bill was unconstitutional because it did not include exceptions to save the life of the woman.

But legislators thumbed their noses at that in 2003. They hoped Bush would appoint anti-abortion justices before the court reviewed it again. The appointments of Chief Justice John Roberts in 2005 and Justice Samuel Alito in 2006 did just that.  

Eve Gartner, senior staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights, who helped argue the case against the bill on Nov. 8, 2006, stressed that Congress shouldn’t be making medical decisions. A CRR brief cited leading practitioners who stated that the dilation and evacuation (D&E) procedure, which is the proper medical term, is “significantly safer for patients,” especially for women with cardiac conditions and uterine cancer. (Planned Parenthood podcast, Nov. 8, 2006)

However, if the Supreme Court upholds the vaguely worded bill, it could be used to deny access to all abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy. Although 91 percent of abortions in this country take place during that timeframe, often young women who have not received adequate sex education or don’t have access to birth control do not become aware of a pregnancy until later. Forcing young women to carry unwanted pregnancies would be a grave injustice.

“We have to begin mobilizing now in case the Supreme Court upholds this reactionary bill,” Kris Hamel, founding member and organizer of DANFORR (Detroit Action Network for Reproductive Rights), told Workers World. “Legal abortion was won when women took to the streets in the early 70s. The only way we can defend and expand reproductive rights for all women is by direct action.”  

Currently on trial in Buffalo on federal charges is James C. Kopp, who pled guilty in 2003 to state charges of murdering abortion provider Dr. Bernard Slepian in cold blood in 1998. If convicted of a federal law forbidding forceful interference with reproductive services, Kopp could be sentenced to life without parole, superseding the state sentence of 25 years to life.

“The trial gives Kopp and his supporters an opportunity to roll out their propaganda to encourage violence against abortion providers,” Ellie Dorritie, an organizer of successful clinic defense in Buffalo in 1992 and 1999, told Workers World. “Those who provide abortion and contraception services continue to be pioneers in defending women’s rights even today. The only virtue of the trial for those who support women’s rights is we get an opportunity to affirm that.” Dorritie noted that Buffalo clinic defense put Randall Terry, Kopp’s mentor, and Operation Rescue out of business.

Opposing a Bush appointee in the Department of Health and Human Services is also on the agenda. In a blatant slap at women’s rights, Bush put Eric Keroack, a known opponent of abortion, birth control and sex education, in charge of Title X, a $283 million program that provides family planning services to nearly five million poor women. Planned Parenthood and other groups are pressuring HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt to replace Keroack with a qualified, unbiased health care professional.

The National Network of Abortion Funds, which helps poor women—who are disproportionately young, rural and women of color—pay for abortions, has initiated the “Hyde—30 Years Is Enough!” Campaign, which has been joined by many other groups. NNAF points out that the Hyde Amendment, which became law in 1977, forbids federal funding for abortion, with the only exceptions being rape, incest and danger to the life of the woman. Women in 16 states do have access to state Medicaid funding, while only two states fund abortions for undocumented women.

NNAF, which coordinates 109 grassroots organizations in 43 states, notes that poor women often go without food, risk eviction and pawn their possessions to raise money for an abortion. Women on public assistance are in a double-bind: they can’t afford an abortion, which may cost $500 to $2,000, and they can’t receive financial support after childbirth because the so-called welfare “reform” law punishes them for having a child while receiving assistance.