Attack on reproductive rights deepens
By
Minnie Bruce Pratt
Published Aug 13, 2005 8:26 AM
On Aug. 4, despite opposition from
pro-choice demonstrators on the State Capitol steps, New York Gov. George Pataki
vetoed legislation that would have made conception-preventing pills available to
women without a doctor’s prescription. Those rallying to protest
Pataki’s veto included members of Family Planning Advocates of New York
State and Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood.
The so-called
“morning-after pill” is actually an emergency contraceptive (EC). It
is particularly needed by women whose birth control has failed, and by women who
have been raped. The pill prevents fertilization of
eggs.
Reproductive-rights advocates in New York speculate that Pataki, who
has supported abortion rights in the past, is swinging to the right as
preparation for a presidential bid in 2008.
However, Pataki’s veto
is part of a continuing national campaign against reproductive rights. The
campaign’s most visible target has been women’s access to an
abortion.
Recently a right-wing campaign has focused on denying
women’s access to birth control by promoting pharmacists’
“right” to refuse to fill prescriptions for contraception, including
the EC pill.
On July 26, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney vetoed legislation
that would have required hospital emergency rooms to offer the EC pill to rape
survivors.
In the U.S. Senate, third-ranking Republican Rick Santorum of
Pennsyl vania has publicly criticized the landmark 1965 Supreme Court ruling in
“Griswold vs. Connecticut.” That decision made married
couples’ access to birth-control methods a legal right.
Until the
ruling, purchase of contraceptive aids, even by a married person, was a crime in
many states. In 1975 the Supreme Court extended to unmarried women the right to
access to birth control.
Santorum emphatically asserted that he does not
believe the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right to contraceptive methods
under “the right to privacy” argument used in Griswold and
subsequent cases.
Giant corporate retailer Wal-Mart has banned the EC pill
from its stores across the United States. But women are organizing to protect
their right to contraception.
At a demonstration called by the group
“UMass Vox: Voices for Choice” outside a Wal-Mart in Hadley, Mass.,
UMass Vox President Linda Forman said: “Wal-Mart is one of the biggest
chains there is. We have access to CVS and Target [pharmacies], but some women
don’t. There only is a Wal-Mart in their neighborhood.” (Daily
Collegian, March 28)
Just as the reactionary forces are trying to defeat
reproductive rights on many fronts, the pro-choice movement must defend the
broad range of rights for women. These include women’s ability to decide
when or if they will become pregnant; maternity leave, child care, living wages,
and family health insurance for women who do decide to have children;
women’s right to choose to terminate pregnancies through abortion; and an
end to forced sterilization.
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
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