BY PAT GROGAN  
On January 22, 1973, women won their most important victory in decades.

The U.S. Supreme Court, in Roe vs. Wade, ruled that women had the constitutional right to have abortions. The ruling legalized abortion through the first twenty-four weeks of pregnancy and struck down all laws that restricted that right.

For the first time the right of women to decide whether or not to bear children--not the state, church, husband, father, or priest--was recognized.

The women’s liberation movement saw reproductive freedom as the most fundamental right of women, a precondition for full equality and liberation. Without the right to control her own body, a woman could not exercise effective control over her life.

Beginning in the 1960s, contraception was becoming more available and accepted, but it was not foolproof--and still isn’t. Advances in medical science had made abortion a safe, simple, medical procedure. But in most states, abortion was against the law. Women were forced to bear children against their will, or risk dangerous--and often deadly--illegal or self-induced abortions.

In 1969, the year before New York State adopted liberalized abortion laws--a step that laid the basis for the later Supreme Court victory--approximately 210,000 women entered city hospitals due to abortion complications.

The restrictions on abortion were powerful and barbaric chains on women. Black women and Latinas suffered the most from the illegal status of abortion. Eighty percent of the hundreds of women who died each year were Black and Spanish-speaking women.

And many Black women and Latinas were forced to submit to sterilization in order to obtain an abortion.

Prior to the emergence of the feminist movement in the late 1960s, many supporters of legal abortion presented their arguments in terms of population control--arguments that are used to bolster the racist practice of forced sterilization.

The feminist movement put the axis for the fight to legalize abortion where it belonged--on the right of women to control their own bodies. It was on this basis that majority support for legal abortion was won.

Because of the stakes involved in the fight for abortion rights, this right was never secure.

Several years ago, Democrats and Republicans alike began to step up their attacks on the right to abortion.  
 
1976 Hyde Amendment
The Hyde Amendment, passed by Congress in 1976, was the most serious blow. It cut off Medicaid funding for abortions, except in cases of rape, incest, or when a woman’s life is in danger. In May 1981, Congress cut off funds even in cases of rape and incest.

In October 1984, Congress once again denied abortion funding for victims of rape and incest.

Since the Hyde Amendment was passed, thirty-six states have cut off state funding for abortions.

This strikes hardest at Black women, Latinas, and the poorest women. It is part of the attack against the right of all women to abortion and lays the basis for further attempts to restrict abortion rights.

In the years 1978 and 1979 alone, almost 1.5 million women were unable to obtain abortions, either because of lack of facilities or inability to pay....

[New York’s Cardinal John O’Connor argues] that abortion is murder and that women who have abortions are, therefore, guilty of murdering children.

Abortion is not murder. It is a simple medical procedure that terminates a pregnancy. Abortion is key to allowing women to decide whether and when to bear children....

With a wave of the hand, he dismisses as untrue the "impression" that "masses" of women would die if abortion were to be made illegal again.

Official statistics show that during the 1960s, when abortion was illegal, thousands of women were maimed and hundreds died each year as a result of botched abortions. We have no way of knowing how many other abortion mortalities were reported as deaths due to "severe hemorrhaging" or "miscarriage."

In fact, it was outrage at the killings and maimings resulting from illegal abortion that helped spur women to demand an end to antiabortion laws. Legal abortions save lives--women’s lives....

Forcing a woman to bear a child against her will is a brutal denial of a woman’s humanity and dignity.  
 
Necessary in fight for equal rights
Bearing a child affects all the other aspects and decisions of a woman’s life--her ability to get an education, get a better job--or any job. As long as women are vulnerable to unwanted pregnancies, breaking down economic and social barriers on the job, in education, and in the home becomes a much more difficult task.

Of course, legalized abortion cannot solve all the problems facing women. But the right to choose is the most fundamental step toward women being able to achieve full equality.

That’s why after women began pouring into the work force in the last three decades, the question of legalizing abortion became a burning issue for millions. When women can control their childbearing functions, it allows them to begin to participate more fully in all aspects of social life. The right to choose means qualitatively more freedom and mobility for women.

We’ve already seen this in the 12 years that abortion has been legal. Even though access to it is far from universal, it has meant significant changes in the lives of millions of women.  
 
 
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