Vol. 73/No. 23      June 15, 2009

Discussions at the vigils, rallies, and coming actions must also take up the pressing need to remobilize politically to defend women’s right to choose.

From the moment it was won in 1973, Democrats and Republicans have jointly chipped away at legal abortion, imposing restrictions making it as difficult as possible for women to exercise their right to decide whether to have a child. They have made headway: At the time of his death Tiller was one of only a few doctors in the nation providing late-term abortions.

Decades of reliance on “friends of women’s rights” in the Democratic and Republican parties have resulted in the political demobilization of the women’s rights movement. In a recent commencement speech at Notre Dame University President Barack Obama even suggested that supporters of a women’s right to choose seek “common ground” with abortion opponents in order to “reduce the number of women seeking abortions.” Obama issued a feeble two-sentence denunciation of the killing of Tiller, saying he was “shocked and outraged.” But calls for seeking “common ground” with forces such as Operation Rescue only encourage further murderous assaults.

The shooting of Tiller is a consequence of the sharpening and spreading capitalist crisis. In 1991, right-wing forces around Operation Rescue made Wichita the central battleground in the fight against abortion rights. Their aggressive street actions to shut down abortion clinics there showed a face of incipient American fascism. Tiller, his clinic, and its workers were among their main targets.

His clinic has been bombed and workers there have been repeatedly threatened. Tiller himself was shot in both arms in 1993. Twice state officials have dragged Tiller into court to face charges that he had violated laws restricting abortion. In both cases he was acquitted.

Reproductive freedom is a fundamental right of women and 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. This right becomes ever more essential as a larger and larger percentage of women are drawn into the workforce. Defending legal abortion against those seeking to subjugate women is vital to the interests of all working people.

The attacks on abortion rights are aimed against the working class as a whole. They are part of trying to divide working people, to drive down our conditions of life and our expectations. The labor movement should champion the struggle to defend a woman’s right to choose and the fight to fully prosecute and convict Tiller’s killer.
 
 
Related articles:
Protests say: abortion is a woman’s right to choose!
Vigils condemn killing of clinic doctor in Kansas
How attempts to shut abortion clinics were defeated  
 
 
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