Despite having lost ground in access to abortion facilities for working women under successive Democratic and Republican administrations in federal and state government, women have refused to be pushed back to the time when their reproductive rights were dictated by the state, the church, or their husbands or fathers. The 1973 Supreme Court decision that decriminalized abortion meant that for the first time the right of women to decide whether or not to bear children was recognized.

Reproductive freedom is a fundamental right of women--a precondition for full equality and liberation. Without the right to control her own body, a woman cannot exercise effective control over her life or join as an equal in social and political life. Defending this right against those seeking to keep women in second-class status is vital to the interests of working people.

The spirited and confident march of thousands of defenders of a woman's right to choose abortion in Washington this past April was another confirmation of the determination of millions of people to oppose attacks on abortion rights.

The fact that many abortion rights foes recognize they have "lost the debate" over federal funding of stem cell research is one indication of how the unscientific ideological underpinnings of the oppression of women are heading down a "slippery slope" as many rightists fear. Working people and science--which is in the interests of the working class--are winning out over the backward attempts by the government, begun under the Clinton administration, to impose a taboo on embryonic research. Capitalist politicians have sought to stymie attempts to pursue what may be a promising avenue of medical work by denying it federal funding or banning it outright as some states and governments have done. Restrictions and attempts to create fear around basic scientific advances--such as gene manipulation of crops to give them resistance to disease and other beneficial traits--only prevent the forward march of the working class and all humanity.

Instead of targeting the right to abortion, many opponents of women's rights are shifting the focus of their propaganda campaign to reinforcing the family structure under capitalism, undermining the right to divorce, and decrying the "loose morals" of "independent women." The right-wing magazine National Review, for example, features on the front page of its July 23 issue an article proposing a constitutional amendment that says: "Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman." Targeting recent civil union laws that allow the marriage of same-sex couples, National Review says the constitutional provision is needed to "end the abuse of the judicial process and protect both marriage and democracy in America."

The goal of this offensive against women's rights is to undermine women's self-confidence; reinforce their second-class status; make individual families--above all women--bear the responsibility for health care, child care, education, and care for the elderly; and try to make women think they should not be equals with men in economic and political life.

The wider resistance among working people today to the offensive by the employers and the government against our living standards and rights, and the openness to reaching out in solidarity to defend these hard-won gains, provides ample opportunity to deepen the fight for women's emancipation. That fight is a central component of the coming revolutionary struggles to replace the government of the exploiters and oppressors with one of working people, as part of the worldwide battle to uproot capitalism and bring an end to class society on which the oppression of women is based.
 
 
Related article:
Abortion rights issue underlies debate on stem cell research  
 
 
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