http://themilitant.com/2016/8004/800420.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 80/No. 4 February 1, 2016
(editorial)
Defend women’s right to choose!
The labor movement and all working people should join in the fight
against the growing number of state laws restricting women’s access to
abortion, and against the attacks on Planned Parenthood.
Defending the right to choose abortion is a working-class question: the
right to decide when or if to bear children is fundamental to a woman’s
control of her own life and to winning full social, economic and
political equality, a prerequisite to uniting the working class. The
attacks on the right to choose — from waiting periods to excessive
regulations designed to force clinics to close to denial of Medicaid and
insurance coverage for abortion — land hardest on working-class women
and the rural poor.
The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution registered the conquests of
the Second American Revolution, which put an end to chattel slavery. It
says, “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the
privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any
state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due
process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal
protection of the laws.”
The fight for abortion to be the decision of a woman — not the
government, a doctor, a relative or anyone else — is part of the fight
to extend this constitutional protection fully to women.
In the context of today’s capitalist depression and growing attacks on
working people, the rulers’ efforts to relentlessly cut women’s access
to abortion is part of a broader campaign against working-class women to
undermine their confidence, drive down the value of their labor power
and divide the working class.
Women and the working class are paying a big price today for the refusal
of the established women’s rights organizations to mobilize spirited
public actions in support of women’s right to abortion, and campaign
vigorously for it as a fundamental question of women’s equality. Like
most liberals today, they believe workers are moving to the right,
evidenced by the support for Donald Trump. They argue supporters of
abortion should focus on “stopping the right” and not to rock the boat.
Trust in the courts, they say, and work to elect “pro-choice” politicians.
The Socialist Workers Party points to the young people who mobilized in
Chicago Jan. 17 against restrictions on women’s right to choose abortion
as a good example that can and should be emulated.
Related articles:
Protest hits restrictions on abortion rights, cuts to Planned Parenthood
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