The Courts Temporarily Slowed the Assault on Abortion Rights—
We Must Step Up Our Fight to DEFEAT the War On Women!

by Sunsara Taylor | June 29, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Three horrendous anti-abortion laws that were set to go into effect in three different states on July 1st have been temporarily blocked by three different courts. This is a positive development, but it is not a time to breathe a sigh of relief. These rulings are only temporary. The fight over abortion continues to heat up. It is likely that a challenge to one or more of these restrictions will soon be taken up by the Supreme Court, a court which has been increasingly hostile to abortion rights in recent years and whose ruling would have enormous repercussions for decades to come.

RaiseHellJ1

Nationwide Protests July 1
Join one of these or organize your own!

FORCED MOTHERHOOD IS FEMALE ENSLAVEMENT!

ABORTION ON DEMAND AND WITHOUT APOLOGY!

New York City
Rally/Protest
6pm - Union Square
Contact: StopPatriarchy@gmail.com

Seattle
Speak-out & Die-in
5pm - Westlake Park
Contact: StopPatriarchySeattle@fastmail.net

Los Angeles
Protest "Hollywood Women's Center"
(anti-abortion center)
12 noon - 862 N Vermont Ave
Contact: StopPatriarchyLosAngeles@gmail.com

San Francisco
Protest - 1pm
Archdiocese of San Francisco
1 Peter Yorke Way
Contact: StopPatriarchyBayArea@gmail.com

Houston
Protest. Gather at 4:30
Congress & San Jacinto in Downtown Houston

Cleveland
Noon, Protest at St. John's Cathedral
E. 9th & Superior
March through downtown to other sites that
represent the oppression of women!

Already, the right to abortion is more embattled than at any time since it became legal more than forty years ago. For women living in large parts of this country, it is already out of meaningful reach. Six states have only one abortion clinic left. And those behind this relentless assault on abortion—and birth control!—are not letting up. Now is the time to step up our fight to reverse the tide of abortion clinic closures, shame heaped on women, and medically unnecessary obstacles put in the way of women seeking to terminate unwanted pregnancies.

In order to get a sense of how far the right to abortion has been restricted, it is important to consider how extreme the laws are that were set to go into effect on Wednesday, July 1st:

A law passed in Kansas was scheduled to ban the most common and safest procedure used for abortions that take place after the 12th week of pregnancy.
A law passed in Tennessee was scheduled to close one third (2 out of 6) of the state's abortion clinics by requiring them to undergo medically unnecessary physical renovations that could cost up to a million dollars or more.
A law passed in Texas was scheduled to close more than half of the remaining abortion clinics (10 out of 19) by requiring them to undergo the same medically unnecessary physical renovations that could cost up to a million dollars or more. This comes after the closure of more than 20 more abortion clinics in the last two years based on medically unnecessary legal restrictions.

It is a very good thing that these laws will not—as of now—be going into effect on July 1st. But think about what it means that these kinds of draconian laws could have been passed in the first place! Think what it means that more than 50 laws restricting abortion have been passed already this year. And think about the fact that all this comes after several years of record restrictions on abortion, record numbers of abortion clinic closures, continuing violence and terror inflicted on abortion doctors and clinics, and unprecedented attacks on birth control.

It is important to note that the temporary block on the closure of ten more abortion clinics in Texas came from the Supreme Court in a deeply divided decision (5 to 4). This indicates that it is very possible (perhaps likely) that the Supreme Court will hear the appeal that has been filed by women's clinics attempting to get this law thrown out. While no one can say for sure what the court would decide, one thing we do know is that in recent years the Supreme Court has becoming increasingly hostile to women's right to abortion and increasingly lenient in the amount of restrictions to women's right to abortion that they will allow.

Right now, as these horrific restrictions on women's most fundamental rights are being hammered into place by fascist law-makers and toyed with by increasingly hostile courts, it is more urgent than ever that everyone who does not want to see women forced to have children against their will step up the fight out in the streets to demand ABORTION ON DEMAND AND WITHOUT APOLOGY!

On July 1st, the day that these restrictions were scheduled to go into effect, join with StopPatriarchy.org in the streets of New York, Houston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Cleveland and wherever you are. Take to the streets and bring everyone you know to stand up and show the world that we will not sit back as women's fundamental rights are stripped away. Seize the moment now to build this fight, drawing together hundreds around the country and soon thousands. Get people organized into this movement because we know the fight is far from over. It is more critical than ever.

Fetuses are NOT babies. Abortion is NOT murder. Women are NOT incubators.

The Supreme Court's Growing Hostility to Abortion Rights

Many pro-choice politicians and organizations like to comfort themselves—and pacify supporters—by claiming that the Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld the basic framework of Roe v. Wade's protection of abortion rights. However, the real story is much more ominous. While the Supreme Court has consistently refused to outright overturn Roe v. Wade, it has repeatedly and systematically undermined protections for abortion rights and dramatically widened the scope of allowable restrictions to abortion. In so doing, the Supreme Court has opened the door wide to the very spate of restrictions on abortion which are currently sweeping the country and forcing many women to take desperate measures when they cannot access safe and legal abortions. There is absolutely no reason to expect them to be firm protectors of women's right to abortion. Instead, we must rely on ourselves. Here are a few examples of their rulings in recent decades:

In a 1980 decision (Harris v. McRae), the Supreme Court upheld the Hyde Amendment that banned the use of federal funds for abortion, causing a return to pre-Roe conditions for many poor women throughout the country. This was even after the documented death of Rosie Jimenez, the first woman known to have died from an illegal abortion due to the lack of funding caused by the Hyde Amendment. This Supreme Court ruling also allowed states to join with the federal government in refusing funding to women on Medicaid for abortions.
In a 1989 decision (Webster v. Reproductive Health Services), the Supreme Court upheld a law from Missouri that restricted the use of state funds, facilities, and employees in the provision of abortions and dramatically widened the scope of restrictions to abortion beyond what had previously been understood to be possible.
In a 1991 decision (Rust vs. Sullivan), the Supreme Court upheld a federal “gag rule”—ie: a ban on abortion counseling and referrals in clinics that received federal funds.
In a 1992 decision (Planned Parenthood vs. Casey), the Supreme Court for the first time ruled that states could restrict abortion at all stages of pregnancy (through things like mandatory counseling, mandatory waiting periods, parental consent laws, etc.) and that abortion could be restricted for reasons other than women's safety. The Court also changed the legal standard for abortion restrictions. No longer would those proposing restrictions be required to prove a “compelling state interest.” Instead, those challenging new restrictions would be required to prove that the restrictions placed an “undue burden” on women's access to their rights.
In a 2007 decision (Gonzales v. Carhart), the Supreme Court upheld an unprecedented ban on a one of the safest procedures for abortions late in pregnancy by upholding a federal ban on “partial birth abortions.” There is not even a medical procedure called “partial birth abortion,” the name itself was designed to mislead people and inflame misplaced disgust. The real procedure that was banned is called intact dilation and extraction (D&X) that involves removing (extracting) the fetus intact. It requires collapsing the skull to enable the fetus to pass through the birth canal. And no matter what the patriarchs of the Supreme Court claim, it is an abortion, not a "partial birth.”

The Supreme Court cannot be relied on to protect women's rights. We must rely on ourselves! Only mass, determined resistance of millions can defeat the war on women. Get organized for this today: StopPatriarchy.org.

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The Courts Temporarily Slowed the Assault on Abortion Rights— We Must Step Up Our Fight to DEFEAT the War On Women!