By Tracy Sorensen
Thousands of individuals and delegations from hundreds of organisations are expected to march in Washington on Sunday, April 5, to defend abortion rights for US women. The Supreme Court is poised to overturn its historic 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which overrode state abortion laws and guaranteed women's right to choose up to the end of the first trimester of pregnancy.
Anti-abortion legislation passed in various states over the last two years and due to be considered by the court could deliver the final blow to Roe v. Wade.
The Pennsylvania legislation passed in November 1989, for example, requires a married woman to notify her husband of an abortion, and does not allow an abortion to go ahead until 24 hours after a doctor has informed the woman of specific mandatory topics, including showing pictures of foetal development.
Other states with restrictive laws ready to be considered by the court include Utah and Louisiana and the territory of Guam. The Louisiana law entirely outlaws abortion except to preserve the life of the woman, or in extremely limited cases of rape or incest. There are no exceptions to preserve a woman's health or to abort a profoundly deformed foetus.
In letters to pro-choice organisations across the country, the National Organization for Women has declared that the time is right for marching: "The march is the kick-off for a political campaign which will declare not only that we won't go back, but also that we will indeed fight back. Women and men who support women's rights are a force to be reckoned with in 1992 and beyond."
The theme for the Washington march is: "We won't go back! March for women's lives!" Pro-choice activists are determined to make abortion a key issue in the 1992 presidential elections.
"Ever since the election of George Bush", says NOW, "women in the US have been losing our reproductive freedom. Bush has kowtowed to the right wing of the Republican Party which demands he and his administration not recognise the right to safe, legal abortion but rather promote the 'right to life', that is, compulsory pregnancy for women."
The January 22 US Guardian reported a study by the National Abortion Rights Action League which showed that if the federal guarantee for the right to abortion was lifted, 13 states, with a population of 14.6 women of child-bearing age, would immediately outlaw the procedure.
But while a reversal of Roe v. Wade would be disaster for US women, for many low-income and disadvantaged women, the situation is a disaster now. A series of Supreme Court rulings over the past 12 years has made it increasingly difficult for these women to gain access to abortion. Since 1980, the Guardian notes, Medicaid has not been required to pay for low-income women's abortions. Women can get Medicaid funding for abortions in only 14 states.
In 1989, the Webster v. Reproductive Health Services ruling allowed the states some latitude for restricting abortion rights. According to the Guardian, women under 18 are required to notify at least one parent before having an abortion in seven states and get one or both parents' consent in 10 states. Eighteen other states have consent or notification requirements which are not generally enforced.
In May 1991, another Supreme Court ruling prevented federally funded health clinics from discussing (or even mentioning) abortion. This created the ludicrous situation in which women who could afford private health care could legally discuss abortion with their doctors, while women depending on state health care could not.
In a December issue of the New York newspaper Village Voice, Valerie Chow Bush commented that the "gag rule" and the lack of Medicaid funding for abortions "draw brutal class and race distinctions between women".
She told of the case of Rosa Rodriguez, a single unemployed Brooklyn mother who sought a "backyard" abortion because she could not afford another child — and bore a baby with a severed arm.
"Who are the expendable citizens the Bush administration considers unworthy of receiving accurate and life-saving information about their rights and their health?", asked Chow Bush. These, she said, were the 3.7 million women nationwide who went to federally funded clinics, most of whom were without jobs and health insurance. They were likely to be young, poor, and from communities of colour.
Pro-choice groups will be organising actions in Australia in solidarity with the April 5 Washington march. In Melbourne, the Feminist Offensive for Reproductive Freedom will culminate in a rally at 1 p.m. on April 5 on the steps of the GPO.