[blind-democracy] Fight Texas law that attacks a woman’s right to choose abortion

  • From: "Roger Loran Bailey" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> ("rogerbailey81")
  • To: blind-democracy <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2021 10:55:33 -0400

Fight Texas law that attacks a woman’s right to choose abortion
https://themilitant.com/2021/10/16/fight-texas-law-that-attacks-a-womans-right-to-choose-abortion-2/
BY JANET POST
Vol. 85/ No. 39
October 25, 2021
Two days after U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman ordered an injunction blocking a Texas law that severely restricts a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a request by the Texas attorney general to suspend Pitman’s ruling Oct. 8.

This reinstates the bill that instructs doctors not to perform abortion if they find a fetal “heartbeat.” This normally occurs around the sixth week of pregnancy — when many women don’t even know if they’re pregnant and an embryo does not have anything resembling a human heart.

The appeals court panel gave the U.S. Justice Department, which filed the initial challenge to the law, until Oct. 12 to respond.

During the two-day reprieve, six of the 21 family planning clinics in Texas scrambled to reschedule some of the patients they had been turning away after passage of the act, reported the Center for Reproductive Rights. The seven Planned Parenthood clinics in the state did not reschedule any of their procedures.

Texas officials are now asking the appeals court for a permanent injunction that would allow the law to stand during further court hearings.

To enforce the law, the state allows any person to go after doctors, nurses, clinic volunteers and counselors, family members or anyone who helped a woman obtain an abortion or raised funds to cover the procedure. Those found guilty could face a fine of at least $10,000, plus court costs. The law does not make an exception in cases of rape, incest or sexual abuse — only if a woman’s health is in danger.

Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Mississippi, North Dakota, South Dakota and other states are considering introducing similar bills.

“The right to choose whether and when to bear children, including how many, has to be a private, personal matter for all women,” Sara Lobman, Socialist Workers Party candidate for Manhattan Borough president, told the Militant. “This is fundamental for women being able to control and plan their own lives.”

Amy Hagstrom Miller, director of Whole Woman’s Health in Texas, estimates that 80% of its patients seen since the law was enacted are now turned away after their ultrasound check. Over 56,000 abortions were performed in Texas in 2019.

Women in Texas are forced to turn to out-of-state clinics, especially in Oklahoma and Louisiana. Hope Medical Group for Women in Shreveport, Louisiana, is booked more than three weeks out and has added evening hours. “Because of the delay, they are going to be further along” in their pregnancy, said Kathaleen Pittman, an administrator for that clinic. The Tulsa Women’s Clinic in Oklahoma has tripled its daily appointments. Many poorer working-class women are being prevented from having an abortion.

The nonstop propaganda campaign by opponents of women’s rights and erosion of the right to choose has had an impact on the consciousness of working people. Millions are convinced that life begins at conception or soon after, even if they do not support restricting all abortions.

“Only a mass movement can educate and mobilize the power needed to defend a woman’s right to unrestricted family planning services. This is what it took to overthrow Jim Crow segregation,” SWP candidate Lobman said. “Fighting for that right is essential for winning women’s equality, uniting the working class and building our unions.”

Today there is not an abortion clinic in 90% of U.S. counties. A decade ago Texas had 40 family planning clinics providing abortion, twice as many as today.

On Oct. 2 tens of thousands of working people joined in over 660 demonstrations in cities and small towns across the country, and some overseas, to speak out in favor of women’s right to choose abortion and against the Texas law.


Front Page Articles
Kellogg strike is in the interest of all workers!
Fight Texas law that attacks a woman’s right to choose abortion
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Workers increasingly turn to our unions to fight assaults by bosses
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Feature Articles
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Join Socialist Workers Party campaign!
Celebrate political life of Maurice Williams
Campaign to expand reach of 'Militant,' books, SWP fund October 2-November 23 (week one)
On the Picket Line
Cereal maintenance workers in UK fight wage cuts
Michigan auto-parts workers strike, win UAW union
‘We are fighting for respect,’ say Montreal hotel strikers
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― Aron Ra, “This is what science always has to do, but religion will not do that. While scientists themselves may be religious individuals of many different faiths, their methodology was designed to be the antithesis of faith—it requires that all assumptions be questioned, that all proposed explanations be based on demonstrable evidence, and that all hypotheses be testable and potentially falsifiable. Blaming magic is never acceptable because miracles aren't explanations of any kind, and there has never been a single instance in history when assuming the supernatural has ever improved our understanding of everything. In fact, such excuses have only ever impeded our attempts at discovery.” ― Aron Ra, Foundational Falsehoods of Creationism

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