On 24 June, as predicted, the Supreme Court decided to end federal protection of the right for US women to obtain abortions. In the weeks since, over a hundred restrictions on reproductive rights have been introduced to state courts by Republican attorneys; some have been enacted, some will be enacted in the coming months, few will be blocked. So far, ten states have banned abortion outright, with only two, South Carolina and Mississippi, allowing exceptions for rape. Already a 10-year-old girl from Ohio was forced to travel out of state to obtain an abortion as a direct result of post-Roe legislation. For US women, and women worldwide, the overturning of Roe v Wade will only further prove to have lethal consequences.
A post-Roe world
This attack on abortion has a disproportionate effect on working-class women. In 1972, prior to the Roe v Wade ruling, there were an estimated 130,000 illegal abortions in the US, resulting in 39 deaths. A large proportion of these women were poor and black. Travelling out of state for an abortion is not an option for many women: it requires money for transport and accommodation, time off work, childcare for any existing children. Women will be forced into having unsafe and illegal ‘backstreet’ abortions, or having an unwanted pregnancy.
With forced pregnancy taking a debilitating physical toll on the body, and childcare costs in the US averaging $14,000 a year, women will be pushed into dependency within the home. This presents the US ruling class with a problem. On the one hand, during times of economic crisis capitalism depends on a disposable workforce to push out of employment and into the home to take on necessary domestic labour. On the other hand, the US is currently facing a labour shortage in which it needs women within the workforce to stave off the looming recession.
It is likely that the overruling of Roe v Wade will also influence abortion rights in other countries. The US is known for pouring money and resources into select groups and programmes abroad, controlling the infrastructure of oppressed countries via ‘aid’, such as the anti-abortion group 40 Days for Life which is based in Texas but operates in more than 60 countries. Another US group, Human Life International, channelled more than $1.3m into anti-abortion partners in Latin America and the Caribbean between 2010 and 2015. Strengthening US anti-abortion groups at home will only embolden their influence abroad.
Democrats use women as political platform
At every turn the Democrats have refused to protect women’s rights. They had a Senate majority not just currently under Biden but under Carter, Clinton, and Obama. Rather than utilise their political power to codify abortion rights, it has been the other way round – the Democrats have used abortion rights as a political platform upon which to lure liberal voters and stay in power. Before Roe v Wade was overturned it was entirely possible to enshrine the right to abortion into law, but the Democrats refused to do so.
Now the overruling has come to pass, the Democrats are still pretending their hands are tied. Immense public pressure forced Biden to respond. He did so by issuing an executive order with minimal and vague obligations to expand abortion access in states where it is still legal. As asserted in a statement made by the Party for Socialism and Liberation, the Democrats have the executive power to declare a national health emergency on a federal level, allowing federal facilities such as military hospitals to be used for abortion services. The Democrats have refused to do this. They are counting on using access to abortion as a carrot to dangle to drum up votes in the run up to the November mid-terms.
Women fight back
Since the draft opinion was leaked, women across the US have been fighting back in the thousands against the state’s egregious attack on women. 10,000 people demonstrated outside the White House on 10 July as part of a national day of action, alongside protests in cities throughout the country. Since the ruling, solidarity protests have taken place around the world, highlighting that free, safe, accessible abortion on demand is a human right.
Imposing conditions on abortion such as a ban with ‘progressive’ exceptions for rape, incest or threat to the mother’s life are just another means to subjugate women, forcing them into a humiliating bid to prove they deserve an abortion. In Britain, abortion rights cannot be taken for granted: a woman must have the permission of two doctors to access abortion services within a limit of 24 weeks of pregnancy, and growing waiting times are making abortion more and more inaccessible.
NHS guidance is that no woman should have to wait more than two weeks from contacting an abortion provider to having an abortion. The gutting of the NHS means women are increasingly being forced to wait three times as long as this, pushing women over the threshold for being able to receive the abortion pill so they instead have to wait for a surgical procedure or illegally order abortion pills online. Wait times vary by location, so women can be offered an earlier appointment if they are able to travel to another city. This option requires time and money that are increasingly unavailable to working class women.
Terminating a pregnancy is vital healthcare. The lives of women in the US are being used as a political battleground by Republicans and Democrats alike. It is clear from the bloody struggles for women’s rights in history and the reactionary inaction of the Democrats that only continued militant action on the streets can provide the basis for any women’s liberation movement in the US. In Britain we must fight for free abortion on demand which is accessible as early as possible and as late as necessary.
Annie O’Conner
FIGHT RACISM! FIGHT IMPERIALISM! 289 August/September 2022
