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.

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.

These attacks against women's rights have sharply escalated in the last few years.

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 firebombings.

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 1984 presidential elections were used as a staging ground for a major escalation in the ideological offensive against women's rights. The main theme sounded was, “Abortion is murder!”

The Catholic archbishops pressed to make abortion the "key issue" in the elections. Fundamentalist Protestant preachers like "Moral Majority" leader Jerry Falwell stepped up their antiabortion propaganda.

Reagan and the Republican Party convention openly endorsed legislation that would "make clear that the 14th Amendment protections apply to unborn children."

Prominent liberal Democrats like Geraldine Ferraro responded by agreeing that abortion is murder, but that as long as a majority supports abortion rights, it shouldn't be made illegal.  
 
 
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