------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Jan. 23, 2003 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
30TH ANNIVERSARY OF ROE VS. WADE: PRO-CHOICE SHOWDOWN LOOMS IN BUFFALO, N.Y. By Beverly Hiestand & Sue Davis As Jan. 22--the 30th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, the historic Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion--approaches, there has never been such an urgent need to defend women's basic right to control their own bodies. Right-wing forces led and emboldened by the Bush administration's broad attack on the rights of all working and oppressed people are now leading the charge to reverse this fundamental right for women. The most fanatical right wingers plan to rally in Buffalo, N.Y., on Jan. 22 and again at the end of February to support James Kopp, who will stand trial in that city. Kopp has admitted to the Oct. 23, 1998, sniper slaying of Dr. Barnett Slepian, a respected obstetrician and gynecologist who performed abortions. Spokespeople for these zealots have stated that they intend to bring forces from around the country to use the Jan. 22 rally and subsequent trial media coverage to argue that the shooting of Slepian was justifiable. And in a blatant threat, the host of the "Nuremberg Files" web site-- which lists names of health-care workers who are targeted for right-wing murder--has stated that he and others will photograph people visiting the Buffalo Womenservices Clinic and post their pictures on the Internet. (Buffalo News, Jan. 8) The "commander in chief" of the Army of God, a right-wing terror group connected with past abortion clinic bombings, has also reportedly sent a menacing missive vowing to deploy forces "with the power to stop" abortions in Buffalo on Jan. 22. The message features their logo: a cross with a military helmet perched on top of it, and a bomb. (Buffalo News, Jan 11) This is the third time reactionary forces have organized a national attack on women's reproductive rights in Buffalo. In 1992, the anti- abortion group "Operation Rescue" attempted to close down women's health clinics. In response, a large grassroots coalition called Buffalo United for Choice formed--and brought thousands into the streets to defend the clinics and boot the reactionaries out of Buffalo. Anti-abortion forces returned to Buffalo in 1999 in a national mobilization there on what would have been Slepian's birthday. This time they revealed their broader agenda. Along with commemorating the Slepian murder and trying to close down clinics, they threatened to burn books containing sex- and gay-positive messages, AIDS information and other health education. They also carried anti-Semitic signs and threatened lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender activists and clubs. BUC '99 organized an alliance that resulted in gay and straight pro-choice activists uniting to form Rainbow Peacekeepers, under LGBT leadership, to defend the bars and clubs from assault. So in 1999, once again, the right-wing bigots left in total defeat. Such a united movement is needed again. Marge Maloney, organizer for Buffalo United for Choice Rainbow Peacekeepers, explains: "Buffalo has been the scene of two defeats for these right wingers. They are returning because they hope they can win a victory here. Women and their supporters will prove them wrong." BUSH'S ANTI-WOMAN AGENDA The extremists who defend Kopp have been buoyed by the Bush administration. Even before he took office, George W. Bush revealed his administration's aims by appointing two anti-choice figures: John Ashcroft as attorney general and Tommy Thompson as secretary of health and human services. Since then Bush has promoted more than 40 initiatives to abridge reproductive rights in the United States and around the globe. Planned Parenthood President Gloria Feldt notes in her Dec. 24 report "War on Women" that "Bush's anti-woman agenda is bolstered by an anti- choice Congress that is now, with Bush's support, in full frontal attack on reproductive freedom, bill by bill, with an array of anti-choice legislation." One example is a bill banning the procedure misnamed "partial-birth" abortion. The Supreme Court ruled a similarly worded state law unconstitutional in 2000. Bush's ultimate goal is to appoint an anti-choice justice to the Supreme Court in order to overturn Roe. But Bush's agenda is much broader than ending legal abortion. "In addition to eviscerating women's most fundamental human and civil rights," notes Feldt, "these initiatives represent a broad assault on our public health system, which has built its success upon sound scientific and medical practice and is now being dismantled or supplanted by ideology that suits the religious right. "Bush has earmarked millions of dollars for scientifically unsound abstinence-only sexuality education--while attempting to de-fund family planning and reproductive health care services." Bush is attempting to do what former President Ronald Reagan threatened to do: totally dismantle the progressive public policies protecting workers, people of color, women, seniors, children and the environment that have been passed since the Great Depression more than 70 years ago. And all these attacks on health clinics and providers are coming at a time of an overall crisis in the health-care-for-profit industry that makes it even harder to provide the care that women need. ROE V. WADE: PRODUCT OF STRUGGLE, UNITY Abortion was legalized in the United States during a time of massive social upheaval. The women's movement was inspired by the 1960s civil rights and Black Lib eration movements--which also helped galvanize the struggle to end the war in Viet Nam and the oppression of lesbian, gay, bi and trans people. Women activists, who knew the horror of illegal, back-alley abortions either from humiliating, scary personal experience or because they mourned friends who had died, took to the streets with the slogan "free abortion on demand." It was this broad, determined struggle that won the Roe vs. Wade decision in 1973 by a vote of seven to two, although Republicans dominated the Supreme Court at that time. A reactionary backlash against that hard-won victory began in 1977 with the Hyde amendment, which ended federally funded abortions for women on Medicare. Ever since, the pro-choice movement has been defending women's reproductive rights, which nevertheless have slowly been whittled away. At least three times during the 1980s Reagan years, women and men in the millions marched down Pennsylvania Avenue to defend choice. The vast majority of working and poor women today make reproductive choices in the context of low wages, inaccessible health care, inferior education and jobs where threats of violence and sexual harassment prevail. For women to have true reproductive rights--including access to safe, affordable abortion and birth control--they must be free from racist and anti-disabled sterilization abuse, rape, incest and domestic violence. They must be guaranteed conditions like affirmative action programs for victims of racism and sexism; lesbian, bisexual and trans rights; and fully funded resources for single mothers. Bush claims to be "pro-life." But his "endless war" agenda, with its huge shift of funding away from human needs to war, is all about destroying life, both in Iraq and in this country. Pro-choice activists can make a vital contribution to the anti-war movement by exposing the hypocrisy of Bush's pro-life rhetoric and uniting to fight for the many social programs that benefit the majority of people. Beverly Hiestand is a founding member of Buffalo United for Choice, which led successful struggles to defeat anti-choice mobilizations in 1992 and 1999. Sue Davis is a founding member of two reproductive rights organizations that led pro-choice demonstrations in New York City--the Committee for Abortion Rights and against Sterilization Abuse (1977- 1988) and Women's Health Action Mobilization (1989-1992). - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. 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