WORKERS WORLD PARTY CONFERENCE
'We fought for reproductive rights and won'
Excerpts from a talk by Beverly Hiestand
For a woman to participate fully and freely in
society, she must be able to control her own body. She must be
able to decide for herself, with or without a partner, when and
how she will or will not have children.
This choice is based on a whole series of social and
economic variables, such as the availability of reliable, safe
abortion; jobs; medical care; and social services like
childcare, education and housing.
When she has control over her body and her own life, a woman
can organize a union at her job to improve the working
conditions, wages, and benefits. Or she might join her union
sisters and brothers to demand union wages for all workfare
workers. She can refuse forced sterilization and demand social
services like childcare, education and housing.
The struggle for reproductive freedom empowers women and
directly challenges the owners and bosses who are slashing
wages and social programs in the desperate scramble to save
their system. That is why the bourgeoisie never stops its
efforts to take away women's reproductive freedom.
Ever since Roe v. Wade legislation was passed in 1973, the
right wing has been unrelenting in its efforts to ban
abortions. Still, the majority of people in this country have
consistently shown support for a woman's right to a safe, legal
and accessible abortion.
So the anti-choice forces have shifted their strategy from
trying to make abortion illegal to trying to make it
impossible. While the most violent wing of the anti-choice
movement has bombed clinics and assassinated doctors and clinic
workers, others have worked at creating legislative barriers to
abortion.
Thirty states have voted to ban late-term abortions, a
rarely performed procedure reserved for difficult pregnancies
that threaten the life of the mother.
The Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals just upheld
Illinois and Wisconsin laws banning late-term abortions.
However, history has shown us that the gains for our class have
been made in spite of reactionary Supreme Court justices and
presidential administrations. They have always been made
through mass struggle.
In l991, "Operation Rescue" proclaimed a summer victory
after closing down some clinics in Wichita, Ks. The following
spring, they came to Buffalo and were met with "You are not in
Wichita" signs and thousands of clinic defenders, including our
gay and lesbian sisters and brothers, who drove them out of
town without one clinic closing for a single day.
Many activists learned that spring that while we couldn't
depend on injunctions, police and federal marshals to keep our
clinics open, we could depend on each other. We had the skills,
the strength and the numbers we needed to stop these
bigots.
Last fall, followiing the assassination of Dr. Bernard
Slepian, a high ly respected gynecologist who performed
abortions in Buffalo, anti-choice forces announced they were
coming back to commemorate their attempts to close our clinics.
This time they extended their threats to the lesbian gay, bi,
and trans community.
Everyone took them seriously. By then we had witnessed the
torture and murder of Mathew Sheppard and James Byrd Jr. and
knew that gay and trans bashing had increased
significantly.
At the first meeting of the reconstituted Buffalo United for
Choice, everyone agreed that we needed a broad-based struggle
against the right wing. In the weeks that followed gay and
lesbian organizations stepped forward to provide funds for
brochures and mailings. They joined the BUC steering committee
and sent their members to the clinic defense lines. In return,
when gay bars and individuals received threats, clinic
defenders showed up at night as "Rainbow Peacekeepers" to
defend the bars. The organization and tactics of the
peacekeepers were modeled after clinic defense.
By the end of the week, the right wing left town again,
without closing the clinic and without carrying out any act of
violence against the gay and lesbian community. They left
behind a stronger, more unified movement, with a gay and
lesbian community that had organized its own defense and had
moved out of its isolation.
Since the bigots left, physicians and clinic workers have
continued to carry on their heroic work. The number of
abortions being performed now is higher than a year ago. The
University of Buffalo chapter of Medical Students for Choice is
re-energized and has been successful in getting a lecture on
abortion into the medical school curriculum.
During this mobilization, Workers World Party was
instrumental in building a movement with more class
consciousness. We organized a committee to focus on racism and
brought in healthcare workers from the oppressed communities to
mobilize. We discussed Mumia Abu-Jamal's defense at our
meetings.
When we understand where our oppression comes from, when we
understand the role of the state in capitalist society, when we
understand how to come together to fight back, then we are very
close to ending our oppression and building a new socialist
society.
This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
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