Tell the City Council: Make New Orleans an Abortion Sanctuary City Now!

By Ashlee Pintos

On June 6, 2019, the New Orleans City Council voted unanimously on a resolution that states their opposition to the recent abortion ban bill that Governor John Edwards signed May 30. The bill that has been passed is another assault on working people’s reproductive healthcare as it bans abortions in the state of Louisiana after the 6 week mark of pregnancy. This bill has no exceptions for rape or incest and in conjunction with the already existing Hyde Amendment, which blocks Medicaid funding for abortion, access to choice for working/poor people is increasingly impossible.

At the council meeting, members of the New Orleans Workers Group demanded that City Council take the necessary steps to declare New Orleans an abortion sanctuary city and that they decline to prosecute anyone seeking an abortion or providing one within Orleans Parish.

Resolutions look nice for the careers of politicians who want a reputation for being “on the right side of history,” but what does that do for us workers who are most affected? Nothing! We need to demand more of city council members and law enforcement. We demand action!

History has already shown us the terrible consequences for poor people when abortion access is restricted. The results of this ban are death, forced generational poverty, and further oppression of child-bearing people. This is just what the capitalists want, and without a mass movement to engage in struggle over our human rights, this is just what they will get.

Here in New Orleans, local politicians rave about being a “progressive city” with Democrats in office and a handful of liberal policies that contrast the rest of the Republican State. However, this has historically meant very little as Baton Rouge continuously denies New Orleans home rule.

Think making New Orleans an abortion sanctuary city is too bold? Just last week, an all-white-male city council in Waskom, TX, declared their city a “sanctuary city for the unborn.” Waskom, TX, conservatives wanted to prevent the opening of an abortion facility after the one in Shreveport, LA, just 20 miles east of their town, was threatened with closure following Louisiana’s abortion ban. If the right-wing can so easily declare sanctuary cities to their liking, why can’t New Orleans do so for its people? It is long overdue that New Orleans take up the struggle against Baton Rouge.

Workers Voice Socialist Movement

We are workers, employed and unemployed, youth, students, and seniors. We are multi-racial and multi-national and organize for the unity of the working class. We are funded by and for workers, for the liberation of all workers and oppressed people.

We organize for jobs and higher wages, against racism, women’s, and LGBTQ oppression, and for solidarity with immigrants. We organize for community schools, lower rents, and food on our tables. We organize for workers’ power so that everything will one day be removed from the capitalists’ private ownership.

We oppose the Pentagon, which is looting our tax dollars and handing them over to war-profiteering private companies, while social programs are gutted. We oppose war for empire which is pursued only to lower our wages and plunder the world’s resources while destroying the environment. We reject the monopoly media who feed us lie after lie.

The labor of workers produces enormous wealth here in Louisiana, the U.S. and the world– so much wealth that everyone could have housing, meaningful jobs, education, healthcare, and genuine equality. But this wealth is stolen and privately owned by the capitalist class for their greed and profit. We believe that we, the workers of the world, can unite in revolution to overcome capitalism and build a better world.

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