------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the April 26, 2001 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- EDITORIAL: WOMEN NEED CHOICE We live in a world where people have more control of their bodies and health than ever before, thanks to a revolution in medicine. If you have a failing organ, you may be able to replace it. If the arteries from your heart are clogged, various methods exist to either widen or replace them. If you are infertile, there are techniques to help you become a parent. These are expensive procedures, but people with insurance are generally covered. But then we come to reproductive choice--something that affects only women. Terminating a pregnancy can be much easier these days because of modern techniques like the abortion pill. It's not a decision that is made lightly, and women who have abortions are counseled on all the ramifications of their decision. But the availability of safe, legal abortions can give women a choice their foremothers never had. However, the religious right have tried to torpedo reproductive choice ever since Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. Conservative politicians who want their support at election time have tried to find ways to make abortions unavailable, if not actually illegal. The terrorist movement of the ultra-right that has murdered doctors, nurses and clerks at women's clinics is treated gently by the state. For these and other reasons, there are fewer providers women can turn to, especially in less populated areas. And the Hyde amendment has prohibited Medicaid programs from using federal funds for abortion, meaning poor women have access to this service only in states willing to pick up the whole tab. In addition, one of the first acts of the Bush administration was to end federal financing for international family planning groups that support abortion. The women's movement, therefore, has rightly kept reproductive rights at the top of its agenda. A demonstration in Washington April 22 called by the National Organization for Women will focus on stopping Bush from appointing Supreme Court justices hostile to abortion. It will serve the movement well to promote all the issues women have in trying to take control of their lives. Poor mothers who are concerned about schools and daycare, about prenatal care and nutrition, can unite with their sisters fighting for the right to abortion if the movement shows how closely these issues are linked. A woman who needs an abortion today may be looking for assistance so she can raise children in a few more years. And someone who started a family when she was just a teenager herself may now be in school or working and want to end a mid-life pregnancy. The women's movement can thwart the right wing only if it is inclusive, diverse and multinational. Bush's slap at family planning makes it imperative to go beyond national boundaries and join women around the world in sisterhood against this oppressive imperialist government. Hopefully the turnout in Washington will be big enough to show the new administration that when it moved against women's right to choose, it struck a rock. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
