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.

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.

There were 180 incidents of violent attacks by right-wing foes of abortion rights on abortion clinics as of November 1984. This includes 20 arsons and fire bombings.

Women seeking abortions are harassed, threatened, and called "murderers" by "right-to-lifers" who try to create an atmosphere of fear and intimidation at abortion clinics. They are the shock troops of a broader assault on abortion rights.

The steps taken toward equality by both the women's rights movement and the civil rights movement have strengthened the entire working class in its ability to struggle against the employers.

In order to lay the basis for ever deeper attacks against the rights and living standards of the working class--and as part of the preparation for full-scale imperialist war in Central America--the ruling class must pit worker against worker, using racist and sexist prejudices to undermine the unity and strength of the working class.

The ruling class ideological offensive is aimed at undermining the powerful idea that women should have equal rights. It is aimed at convincing both men and women that a woman's place is in the home, and that the family, not the government, should bear the cost of caring for children, the sick, and the elderly.

It is aimed at justifying lower pay for women who work and making unemployment of women more acceptable.

Leading the pack of the opponents of abortion rights has been New York's Cardinal John O'Connor.

In a major speech delivered on October 15, 1984, entitled "Human Lives, Human Rights," O'Connor laid out many of the arguments in the antiabortion, anti-women's rights arsenal. These arguments need to be rebutted--forcefully and publicly--by supporters of women's rights.

The theme of O'Connor's speech was the argument that abortion is a social evil and that fighting against abortion rights is progressive --like fighting against racism or for the rights of the elderly.

O'Connor put an equal sign between abortion and his list of social ills: homelessness, mistreatment of the elderly, drug abuse, pornography, sexual exploitation, child abuse, racism, and war.

By linking abortion to genuine social wrongs and injustices, O'Connor tries to make his reactionary campaign against women's rights more acceptable to the millions of working people who, in their majority, support legal abortion. He tries to paint it up as a new "civil rights" movement.

But abortion is not an injustice--it is a basic human right. The right of women to control their own bodies--which is what is at stake in the fight over legal abortion--is an elementary precondition for the liberation of women from the oppression they suffer as a sex.

Women's liberation and civil rights fighters stand together against inequality, discrimination, and exploitation. Both immeasurably strengthen the capacity of the labor movement to resist the current employer-class offensive.

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.

Bearing a child affects all the other aspects and decision 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.  
 
 
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