EDITORIAL
The Grand Inquisitor
The 21st Century's reincarnation of the Grand
Inquisitor--Attorney General John Ashcroft--has made an assault
on the privacy between doctors and their patients as part of
his fundamentalist attack on women's right to choose
abortion.
An anti-woman law Congress passed last October forbids the
use of the "intact dilation and extraction" procedure in
late-term abortions. This procedure is rarely used, most often
as a desperate last-ditch effort necessary to save the woman's
life or end a pregnancy when severe health complications
arise.
Though this procedure makes up only about 0.1 percent of all
abortions in the U.S.--or less--anti-choice zealots, with Bush
and Ashcroft leading the pack, see the recently passed law as a
giant stepping-stone toward overturning Roe vs. Wade--the 1973
Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion.
With their patients' lives and health at stake, doctors and
pro-choice organizations have filed suit to stop the law from
being applied. Ashcroft, in an attempt to defend an
unconstitutional law, is now trying to intimidate the doctors
who are challenging that law, as well as women patients.
The inquisitor has tried to subpoena the personal medical
records of individual patients held by doctors and hospitals.
This, as many have pointed out, violates the privacy of
patients and threatens to put doctor-patient consultations
under the scrutiny of a very nasty Big Brother.
But Ashcroft, who has manipulated the fear aroused by the
9/11 events to abridge individual and legal rights at home, is
meeting with some opposition.
Ashcroft's latest affront to privacy has drawn a response
from the courts that reflects the popular anger it has
provoked. In early February, a Chicago federal judge blocked
the release of records from Northwestern Memorial Hospital to
the Justice Department. This forced a concession from
Ashcroft--not nearly adequate--that the hospitals could censor
the names of the patients. Six major hospitals have sought
legal steps to challenge the Justice Department's assault.
However useful these legal challenges and the resistance of
health professionals are, battles like these are ultimately
settled in the streets, where tens and hundreds of millions of
women and their supporters can make history.
The attack on abortion rights is a direct assault on more
than half the population. On April 25, to defend the rights of
women--and especially the right to choose--more than 570 groups
are mobilizing for a national march and rally in Washington,
D.C. This is the place for all progressive forces to be.
Has Ashcroft overreached? The legal challenges are a good
sign. But a massive turnout on April 25 can give the real
measure of the depth of support for a basic right that was won
through struggle and codified by the Supreme Court in 1973.
Reprinted from the Feb. 26, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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