January 22, 2002, marks the 29th anniversary of the Roe v Wade decision by the US Supreme Court. The decision provided for legal abortion in the United States.
Supporters of women's liberation still celebrate this landmark. But neither in the US, nor in Australia, is abortion now available without legal, financial or social restrictions.
The 1973 court case was an enormous victory for the US feminist movement — not all women were considered criminals after having an abortion, and abortion providers obtained legal protection. The number of deaths from abortion dropped by 600%.
But in the last 29 years, Roe has been undermined through legal challenges, amendments, attacks on clinics and the murder of doctors.
In the first year after the decision, more than 50 bills were proposed to restrict its application. Between 1988 and 1998, more than 800 bills limiting abortion rights were introduced into US state legislatures.
In 1976 federal funding for abortions was outlawed, forcing women in many states to travel great distances for a state-funded abortion or to pay for expensive private health insurance. But even that was threatened — eight states passed laws in the early 1980s that restricted private health insurance cover of abortions.
A 1989 decision allowed states to legislate to restrict abortion access if public funds were involved. In 1991, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government could legally prohibit federally funded clinics from speaking about abortion when counselling pregnant women. This means the most vulnerable women — those who cannot afford health care entirely outside the public system — are being denied their constitutional right to choose abortion. Many of these women are young, black or Native American.
In 1800, abortion was legal in every US state. In 2002, about 20 states only provide public funding for abortions performed to save the life of women; some 40 states require parental consent for abortions for women under 18 years old; and in some states, even rape and incest victims cannot have abortions unless they report the crime within one week of the attack.
The precedent set by Roe v Wade only just survives as law: just five of the nine Supreme Court judges support it, and at least one judge will probably retire this year.
Attacks on abortion clinics have escalated. Anti-choice propaganda is spreading. Anti-choice groups masquerade as pregnancy support services for young and vulnerable women. Offering free pregnancy testing, they show frightening anti-abortion films and discuss just why women shouldn't go ahead with an abortion.
The existing legal right to abortion can mean little in the face of harassment, threats of disclosure, violence at clinics and the murder of abortion providers, all of which hinder women's' ability to freely decide what to do with their bodies.
In Australia, the right to choose is also under fire. The latest attack in Tasmania, where the legal status of abortion has been challenged, comes on top of the recent murder of a security guard working at a clinic in Melbourne.
The constant legal challenges to abortion will continue while control over the decision to have an abortion rests with parliament, courts, and the medical profession. We must fight for the complete removal of abortion from the law-books — so it becomes, like any other medical procedure, under the complete control of the patient.
Women's bodies should not be a battleground for the religious right. It should be for individual women to decide if and when to have children.
The success of anti-women campaigns heightens the need for a feminist, public, political campaign in support of the full decriminalisation of abortion — to make it fully government-funded, accessible and safe.
Pro-choice activists around the US are organising a range of events for a nationwide week of action in defence of reproductive rights from January 22 to 27.
Such campaigns are necessary. Because women can never be liberated unless they fully control their own bodies, and their lives.
BY TRISHA REIMERS
[Trisha Reimers is the Geelong organiser of the socialist youth group Resistance.]
From Green Left Weekly, January 16, 2002.
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