Supreme Court Overturns Texas Abortion Restrictions
A Victory, But the Fight for Abortion Rights Continues

by Sunsara Taylor

June 27, 2016 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

The Supreme Court has overturned the horrendous Texas anti-abortion law HB2, rejecting its anti-abortion restrictions as an “undue burden” on women's ability to obtain an abortion. This means that the remaining abortion clinics in Texas will be able to continue providing abortions to women, and this is a blow against a whole spate of similar anti-abortion restrictions which have been passed across the country. This is good news because, as Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, has pointed out, denying women the right to abortion and forcing women to have children against their will is a form of enslaving women to the dictates of an oppressive male supremacist, patriarchal system.

However, today's victory does NOT mark an end to the war on women. The fact that such an outrageous and anti-woman law could be passed in the first place—with over twenty abortion clinics forced to close during the three years while this law worked its way through the courts—is but one indication of the depth of anti-abortion and anti-woman fanaticism that pervades this country. Many women had their lives destroyed by the lack of abortion access due to these clinic closures, and, even with this positive ruling, it will be very difficult for many of these clinics to reopen. Across this country, women face harassment, shaming and terror as they enter abortion clinics. Just months ago, an anti-abortion gunman murdered three and injured others at a Planned Parenthood in Colorado. Patriarchy is woven into the fabric and foundation of American society and it cannot be uprooted and ended until this system is overthrown through an actual revolution.

www.revcom.us wants to say a huge thank you to all the fighters on the Abortion Rights Freedom Ride—all the brave women and men from all over the country who dropped everything to travel to Texas in the summer of 2014 to build mass resistance to the Texas law HB2 which threatened to shut down all but six clinics in the entire state. These courageous fighters faced down threats, arrests and brutality to boldly put forward their stand of Abortion on Demand Without Apology! As the war on women mounted around the country with hundreds of restrictions on abortion being passed in state after state, they reached out broadly and challenged people to take a stand. They put their own lives on the line to fight against this war on women, to fight for the basic right for women not to be enslaved by enforced motherhood, and inspired others to stand up and draw the line. As we celebrate the victory of the overturning of the provisions in this law which would have succeeded in forcing over a dozen clinics to close, everyone should learn from and be inspired by the powerful example of the brave resisters of the Abortion Rights Freedom Ride and the contribution their struggle made to the battle to defend abortion rights.

It is very significant that thousands of people stood up against HB2 when it was first passed, that doctors and staff persevered in the face of it, that lawyers fought against it, and that StopPatriarchy.org and others mobilized resistance, including sustaining arrests for non-violent direct action in Texas, to oppose this law. Undoubtedly this determination played a role in the Supreme Court's ruling today. Now, this same spirit of defiance and mass resistance must continue and go to new heights—to beat back every unjust and illegitimate restriction on abortion, to put an end to all the shaming, harassment and terror carried out against abortion clinics, to break all the chains of tradition and patriarchy that bind women. And this resistance must fuel and be part of preparing for an actual revolution at the soonest possible time.

Any system that would allow the level of restriction and shame against abortion that takes place in this country—even if the most absurd extremes to which this has been taken have been blocked—is completely illegitimate. The solution is not to campaign for who will preside over this illegitimate system as president, or who will nominate judges to the Supreme Court that renders these decisions.

The solution is to overthrow this system at the soonest possible time through an actual revolution and to go on to build a radically different and far better system and world—one that breaks all the chains that bind women as part of the larger battle to emancipate all of humanity. This is what the Revolutionary Communist Party, led by Bob Avakian, is actively preparing for now. Dig seriously into this revolution at www.revcom.us, and into the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic of North America. And, right now, as part of getting ready for an actual revolution—join with this Party now to wage mass political resistance against the vicious war on women.

FETUSES ARE NOT BABIES!
ABORTION IS NOT MURDER!
WOMEN ARE NOT INCUBATORS!

FORCED MOTHERHOOD IS FEMALE ENSLAVEMENT

BREAK THE CHAINS! UNLEASH THE FURY OF WOMEN AS A MIGHTY FORCE FOR REVOLUTION!