Vol. 74/No. 28      July 26, 2010

Many of the activities at the gathering focused on electing women to political office through support of the Democratic Party, with feminist politicians being featured at several plenary sessions. The theme of the conference was “Loving Our Bodies, Changing the World.” Several workshops focused on themes of how women and women’s bodies are portrayed in advertising.

There were several programs, however, that touched on fights for abortion rights and addressed the impact on women of the severe economic and social crisis in the United States. One plenary, entitled “Expand Abortion Access: Envisioning Reproductive Justice for All,” was a highlight of the conference.

Conference attendees gave a standing ovation to Dr. LeRoy Carhart, a featured speaker and medical director at the Abortion & Contraception Clinic of Nebraska. Carhart had worked with Dr. George Tiller in Kansas before Tiller was killed by an antiabortion rightist in 2009 and is now one of the very few doctors in the country who perform late-term abortions.

Carhart spoke of the struggle to defend abortion rights: “We have put up a fantastic effort but it is a defensive effort that can only end in a tie. It’s time for us to change our response.” He called for a campaign to repeal the Hyde Amendment.

Terry O’Neill, president of NOW, and Stephanie Poggi, executive director of the National Network of Abortion Funds, addressed how the Hyde Amendment—a 1976 federal law that denies Medicaid funding for women seeking an abortion—has been expanded. They explained how the Affordable Health Care for America Act, signed into law by President Barack Obama in March, extends the restriction on using government funds for abortions, excluding millions more women.

“Congress and Obama joined forces to further cement this terrible measure,” said Poggi. Under so-called health-care reform, women who will be eligible for government health-care subsidies will not be able to use their insurance to cover an abortion procedure.

At another plenary, entitled “Lifting Every Voice: Women of Color and Empowerment,” Irasema Garza, president of Legal Momentum, called on NOW to advocate immigration rights, pointing to the daily discrimination faced by women who are immigrants, and the harassment they face as “local police team up with the Department of Homeland Security.” Garza said, “The immigration issue may seem controversial to some, but so was the abortion question.”

Several panelists at a workshop called “Politics 2010: Tea Parties, Racism and Anti-Abortion Rights ‘Feminists,’” focused on the prospects of various Democratic Party politicians in the 2010 elections. In the discussion, David Rosenfeld, Socialist Workers Party candidate for governor of Iowa, talked about a working-class approach to defending women’s rights.

“Abortion rights and other gains for women were won in struggle,” Rosenfeld said. “They can only be effectively defended in struggle.”

“If the strategy for defending these gains is mired in supporting this or that Democrat, we will continue to lose ground,” he continued. “The ruling rich and their political parties, the Democrats and Republicans, are stepping up their attacks on the living standards and political rights of the working class. That is why building a working-class movement independent of the Democrats and Republicans is so essential.”

Panelists at a workshop entitled, “Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry,” criticized the billion-dollar cosmetics industry for using carcinogenic and other harmful substances. In the discussion, Jenny Broz, from the Socialist Workers Party, encouraged participants to pick up a copy of Cosmetics, Fashions, and the Exploitation of Women published by Pathfinder Press. One of the panelists said that she had already purchased the book and looked forward to reading it.

In the final plenary, which considers and votes on resolutions, a back-and-forth discussion broke out over the wording of a resolution condemning the use of Tasers by the police. Some delegates wanted to condemn all Tasering while others proposed condemning “inappropriate Tasering, especially of women who are pregnant, children and the disabled.”

A few delegates expressed concern that NOW might be seen as “anti-cop” if it passed the stronger wording. The discussion came after a plenary addressed by Andrea Cabral, the sheriff of Suffolk County, Massachusetts.  
 
 
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