EDITORIAL
Women need choice
We live in a world where people have more control of their
bodies and health than ever before, thanks to a revolution in
medicine. If you have a failing organ, you may be able to
replace it. If the arteries from your heart are clogged,
various methods exist to either widen or replace them. If you
are infertile, there are techniques to help you become a
parent. These are expensive procedures, but people with
insurance are generally covered.
But then we come to reproductive choice--something that
affects only women. Terminating a pregnancy can be much easier
these days because of modern techniques like the abortion pill.
It's not a decision that is made lightly, and women who have
abortions are counseled on all the ramifications of their
decision. But the availability of safe, legal abortions can
give women a choice their foremothers never had.
However, the religious right have tried to torpedo
reproductive choice ever since Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme
Court decision that legalized abortion. Conservative
politicians who want their support at election time have tried
to find ways to make abortions unavailable, if not actually
illegal. The terrorist movement of the ultra-right that has
murdered doctors, nurses and clerks at women's clinics is
treated gently by the state.
For these and other reasons, there are fewer providers women
can turn to, especially in less populated areas. And the Hyde
amendment has prohibited Medicaid programs from using federal
funds for abortion, meaning poor women have access to this
service only in states willing to pick up the whole tab.
In addition, one of the first acts of the Bush
administration was to end federal financing for international
family planning groups that support abortion.
The women's movement, therefore, has rightly kept
reproductive rights at the top of its agenda. A demonstration
in Wash ington April 22 called by the National Organization for
Women will focus on stopping Bush from appointing Supreme Court
justices hostile to abortion.
It will serve the movement well to promote all the issues
women have in trying to take control of their lives. Poor
mothers who are concerned about schools and daycare, about
prenatal care and nutrition, can unite with their sisters
fighting for the right to abortion if the movement shows how
closely these issues are linked. A woman who needs an abortion
today may be looking for assistance so she can raise children
in a few more years. And someone who started a family when she
was just a teenager herself may now be in school or working and
want to end a mid-life pregnancy.
The women's movement can thwart the right wing only if it is
inclusive, diverse and multinational. Bush's slap at family
planning makes it imperative to go beyond national boundaries
and join women around the world in sisterhood against this
oppressive imperialist government.
Hopefully the turnout in Washington will be big enough to
show the new administration that when it moved against women's
right to choose, it struck a rock.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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