Day: July 12, 2018

By Sally Jane Black

The assault on reproductive rights continues. In the last month, Louisiana law-makers have passed a law restricting abortion access, making it a crime for anyone to provide an abortion to someone after 15 weeks of pregnancy, with no exceptions made for cases of either rape or incest. This law will endanger lives, prevent many women from receiving the care they need, and reinforces rigid ideas of womanhood that only benefit the ruling class.

Democrats Betray the Working Class
Instead of fighting against these attacks, the Democratic Party wrote, sponsored, voted for, and signed them into law. Despite their undeserved reputation of being the more progressive party, they have struck a blow against reproductive rights in Louisiana by passing the most restrictive abortion laws in the country. These laws serve only the interests of the capitalist class (including organizations like the Koch Brothers’ ALEC) that fund their election campaigns. Their motivations are not to defend family values, religious rights, or their own morals, but to opportunistically profit off of women’s suffering.

The Courts Will Not Save Us
The law closely matches one passed in Mississippi which has been taken to court, and it has been tied to that law’s fate in the courts. In Arkansas, a law was recently (passively) upheld in the courts that prevents doctors from providing medical abortions (as opposed to surgical) without a contract with another physician with hospital-admitting privileges. Medical abortions are known to be safer than surgical ones, and it has been shown that hospital-admitting privileges do not noticeably improve the safety of those receiving these pills. The law has shutdown almost all of the abortion clinics in the state. The court system has backed these laws without regard for the consequences to people in need of abortion services, especially poor, working class women.

We Must Fight Back
The legalization of abortion 45 years ago was won not because of the compassion of the unelected tyrants on the Supreme Court, but because of constant struggle from women and progressives in this country fighting for our liberation. The fight against the ruling class’s goal to control our bodies was a mass movement that we must reignite to protect what we have won and further our liberation today.

By Sally Jane Black

In a major victory in Ireland, after a long struggle, the people have voted overwhelmingly to repeal the Eighth Amendment of their Constitution. Despite enormous opposition from conservative institutions (including the church), the Irish people achieved the repeal with over 66% of the vote in favor.

The repealed amendment was added to the Constitution in 1983 as part of backlash against legalized contraception, making Ireland’s abortion laws almost absolutely restrictive. Under these circumstances, thousands of Irish women would travel each year to other countries for abortions. Those who travel risked up to 14 years in jail for taking medication to cause miscarriages. Because of the wording on the amendment, doctors in Ireland would often disagree on what would qualify as a life-threatening risk, which led to many women’s deaths. In recent years, many of these cases, including the death of Savita Halappanavar, an Indian women who died of an infection as doctors argued over her right to an abortion, gained popular attention as organizers fought to repeal the amendment.

A massive grassroots movement under the banner Together for Yes united women from across Ireland including migrant women and trans people affected by the laws. The struggle against the amendment achieved a massive turnout at the referendum and a landslide victory. The victory will be followed by continued struggle, as the repeal only opens the door for new laws and not a complete legalization. This is just the most recent in a long line of victories where Irish women have fought for control over their own bodies and choices in the face of significant repression.