Right to choose abortion
Last week’s article in issue no. 2 on the historic victory in Argentina for a woman’s right to choose abortion was welcome. We also need to refute the lie in the big-business press coverage that gives credit to President Alberto Fernández and Vice President Cristina Kirchner of the Peronist party. While Néstor Kirchner and then his wife Cristina were president, from 2003 to 2015, they opposed decriminalizing abortion. Thousands of women died from back-alley abortions. This record is not surprising, since the Peronists have been the main prop for capitalist rule in Argentina since World War II.
As the Militant has reported over two decades, it was only through the tenacious efforts of women’s rights fighters, whose actions grew from small protests to the recent outpourings of hundreds of thousands, that decisive numbers of working people have been won to their demand: “for the right to legal, safe, and free abortion.” This pushed back the impact of large countermobilizations organized by capitalist forces, including the church hierarchy. It was under this growing mass pressure that Fernández, Kirchner, and other capitalist politicians “saw the light.” It was a victory won for and by working people.
Martín Koppel
New York, New York