Bush threatens women’s rights

THE RELIGIOUS right in the US has declared war on women and our
reproductive rights. With Bush reelected, the Republicans’ grip on Congress
strengthened, and same-sex marriage bans passed in 11 states, the November
2004 election has emboldened the religious right, which is demanding paybacks
for getting out the evangelical vote.

Jessica Johnston, Socialist Alternative, USA

Republicans have already carried out one attack on women’s rights since the
election. They amended a bill that Bush signed into law on 8 December allowing
all healthcare providers to receive federal funding even if they are unwilling
to provide a full range of healthcare services for women, including abortion
services, counselling, or referrals (even in cases of rape, incest, or danger
to the woman’s life).

A whole host of future attacks are being planned, including a ban on
transporting minors across state lines to get an abortion (to avoid parental
notification and consent laws) and a second attempt to ban RU-486, the
abortion pill, which was approved by the FDA in 2000 and has been widely used
in Europe for almost two decades.

The biggest battles will erupt when at least one, and possibly up to four,
Supreme Court justices retire in the next four years. This will give Bush the
opportunity to appoint anti-choice justices, possibly setting the stage for
the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade (the landmark 1973 Supreme Court
ruling that legalised abortion).

This comes against the background of decades of attacks on abortion access
by the right wing. Since 1995 alone, state legislatures have enacted over 380
laws restricting abortion access by imposing waiting periods, parental consent
or notification requirements, and stricter regulations on clinics. The number
of clinics and doctors has dwindled to the point where now 87% of U.S counties
do not have a single abortion provider.

Laws restricting abortion access disproportionately harm working-class
women and women of colour, who cannot always afford to miss work, leave their
families, travel to another city or state and pay for a hotel during the
mandatory waiting periods. Abortions at ten weeks of pregnancy typically cost
$375 and many women do not have insurance that covers abortion.

Rich women, though, can always afford safe abortions, whether they were
legal or not, by hiring an expensive doctor or travelling wherever they needed
to get one.

Who is really pro-life?

THE RELIGIOUS right has put the women’s movement on the defensive in trying
to make abortion a ‘moral’ issue by equating it with murder. If we are to
defend our rights we must go on the offensive. The real issue at stake is the
basic right of women to control our own bodies and our own lives.

Women will never be free if we can be forced to bear a child and raise it
to adulthood against our will, robbing us of our own dreams and goals in life.

Reducing abortions has nothing to do with "saving lives." If it did, why do
anti-abortion fanatics bomb abortion clinics and murder doctors? And making
abortion illegal did not stop abortions from happening – it just made them
humiliating, unsafe, and often fatal for women. An estimated one million women
had illegal abortions in the US annually before the procedure was legalised in
1973, directly resulting in the deaths of 5,000-10,000 women every year.

The real goal of the ‘pro-life’ movement is to restore what they call
"traditional family values," which means forcing women back into the home to
perform countless hours of free domestic labour. It is relegating women to
second-class status without the freedom to determine our own destinies.

The attacks on women’s abortion rights are part of a general offensive by
the ruling class against the gains of the progressive movements of the 1960s.
By undermining the victories of the women’s liberation, civil rights, and
labour movements – such as abortion rights, affirmative action, and social
security – the ruling class hopes to lower ordinary people’s expectations in
life and drive all workers’ living standards down.

This is why defending abortion rights is a key part of defending all the
gains the working class and oppressed people have achieved through struggle.
To defend abortion rights effectively, the women’s movement must link up with
all movements of workers, people of colour, LGBT people, and the anti-war
movement because all our struggles are connected.

For all women to truly have the right to choose, abortions must be free,
accessible, and available on demand.

We need to also fight for free accessible birth control, scientific sex
education (as opposed to proven-to-fail abstinence-only education), as well as
free childcare, paid parental leave from work, equal pay for equal work, and a
$500/week minimum income for the unemployed and those caring for children, the
elderly, or the disabled.

Bush claims the November election gave him a mandate to implement his
conservative social agenda. But in reality, only 60% of eligible voters voted
in 2004, meaning only 30% of eligible voters actually voted for him.

The more Republicans and Christian fundamentalists attack women’s rights,
the more the true ‘moral majority’ will mobilise to stop them. The huge 1.15
million-strong march on Washington for abortion rights on 25 April 2004 was
just a taste of our collective strength.