Unprecedented Struggle Against the War on Women

 

Editors’ note: This year, on the 42nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion nationwide in the U.S., there were powerful protests against the war on women that is raging, in defiance of the huge mobilizations of anti-abortion forces which take place every year on this anniversary. We talked to Sunsara Taylor, a correspondent for Revolution, a leader of Stop Patriarchy (stoppatriarchy.org), and an organizer of these protests.

 

 

Revolution: Can you sketch out what happened this January when the so-called “right-to-lifers” rallied in DC and across the U.S.?

Sunsara Taylor: This January, for the first time in a long time, there was politically confrontational, in-your-face protest right up against the fascist anti-abortion woman-haters. This took place in cities around the country—Chicago, Austin, Cleveland, San Francisco, and elsewhere—but with particular defiance in Washington, DC.

In DC, Stop Patriarchy took over the street in front of the Supreme Court and stayed in the street—despite intimidation by the police and screaming harassment from anti-abortion fanatics—for about half an hour. Eventually the police arrested eight brave protesters, but the March for “Life” was halted for over an hour, completely unable to march in front of the Supreme Court. This was the first time in 42 years their march was brought to a halt.

We were dressed in all-white with “bloody pants,” representing women who died from botched abortions. The whole thing made clear that this fight has never been about “babies,” it has always been about women. The anti-abortion fanatics are marching for women’s enslavement, but we are standing up for women’s full liberation.

Our basic message was: The days of these Christian fascists being able to claim the moral high ground in the public square are over. The time for passively waiting for these attacks to go away is over. The days of politely lobbying, or waiting for a politician or court to save the right to abortion, have to be gone. Standing up is the order of the day! This kind of defiance hasn’t happened in a long time—and much, much more of it is urgently needed.

Revolution: The theme of the March for “Life” this year was “Every Life Is a Gift.” But they are not talking about how precious the lives of actual living human beings are, right?

Sunsara Taylor: They are not talking about the lives of the children in Afghanistan or a Black person murdered by police. They are not talking about women who find themselves pregnant and need abortions. They mean every fetus—or even embryo—is a “gift.” In other words, every time a woman is impregnated—even in the case of rape or incest—this is supposedly a “gift from God”! And women should be forced to bear children against their will even in these circumstances! Even if her life is at risk, she is supposed to risk her life for the so-called precious “gift” of a fetus. So that gives you a sense of why we say these people are woman-hating fascists, that’s not just rhetoric.

While in the street we held up huge, beautiful enlargements of the faces of real women who died because of lack of safe, legal abortion. Also a bright orange banner: “Abortion On Demand and Without Apology!” which made it into national and international news.

Revolution: Talk about the context for these protests.

Sunsara Taylor: In huge parts of this country, there are no abortion clinics. More and more repressive laws—231 in just the last four years—are putting women through all kinds of demeaning and unnecessary hoops to make the simple decision whether to have a child. The right to abortion is hanging by a thread, and momentum against it is escalating. And let’s be clear—if women cannot decide for themselves when and whether to have a child (or when to have an abortion, or access to birth control), then women cannot be free. Forcing women to have children against their will is a form of enslavement. This is a fight over the position of women in society—will women be liberated or enslaved—and women are half of humanity.

Revolution: There were actions in Washington, DC, Austin, San Francisco, Chicago, Oakland, Atlanta, and New York City. (See “Women’s right to abortion is in a state of emergency. This January 22 WE FIGHT BACK.”) Talk about the particular significance of the protest you and Carl Dix led in Oakland.

Sunsara Taylor: In Oakland, some reactionary Black preachers held a rally pushing the lie that abortion is genocide against Black people. Well, first of all, a Black woman, a Latino woman, any woman who chooses to terminate a pregnancy is not killing a baby because fetuses are NOT babies, a fetus is a subordinate part of the woman’s body. (See “What Is an Abortion and Why Women Must Have the Right to Choose.”) If women don’t have the right to determine for themselves when and whether they will have children, they are not free. In reality, the way these reactionary Black preachers see Black women is no different than the way the slave masters back on the plantation saw Black women—they look at them as nothing more than breeders. That is just vicious and horrific and it had to be opposed.

Now there is a whole legacy and present-day reality of the horrific and brutal oppression of Black people and Latinos and Native Americans and other oppressed peoples right here within these borders (and the subjugation of whole nations and peoples by the U.S. around the world), and that has included forced sterilization of Puerto Rican, Black, Native American, and other women. That is racist and genocidal. But that is a world apart from women among the oppressed deciding for themselves which pregnancies to carry to term and which ones they do not want to continue.

And today there is a real genocide going on—concentrated in mass incarceration. These Christian fascists never talk about that! But they blame and shame Black and Latino women as part of demonizing and assaulting all women and their right to decide their own reproduction. So Carl Dix, the Bay Area Revolution Club, folks with Stop Patriarchy, some others, and myself actually marched right up onto their stage and drowned out their lies with truth that Black women—like all women—are not incubators. We took on their lies and their shaming, and really this became the main thing that went down that day.

Revolution: Anything to add about the whole week of struggle?

Sunsara Taylor: Stop Patriarchy put out a statement in the wake of all this that made clear, no positive change for the oppressed has ever come forward in this country without struggle. Now is the time to stand up, get off the sidelines, to join in the urgent battle for the future of women. Stop Patriarchy is currently developing plans for International Women’s Day, March 8th. We need people everywhere to take up the responsibility of getting involved and making International Women’s Day an even more powerful and major leap towards the revolution we need and towards ending all this oppression.