S&L bailout, See page 3

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inauguration festivities dies down, Bush's promises to women, Blacks, and the poor will be rapidly forgctten.

With the help of the Democratic Partydominated Congress, Bush plans to slash medical and retirement funding, aid to the inner cities, and other social services. And only days into his term of office, Bush showed himself ready and eager to erase earlier gains of the women's liberation movement.

On Jan. 22 (the anniversary of the historic Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision of 1973 that gave women the legal right to end their pregnancies) Bush lent his support to an anti-abortion demonstration in Washington, D.C. "Roe v. Wade was wrong and should be overturned," Bush told the cheering rightwingers.

Bush called for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would outlaw a woman's right to choose abortion. The White House soon put teeth into these pronouncements when it revealed a list of anti-abortionists who have been appointed to the Health and Human Services Department.

Supreme Court attacks rights The Supreme Court has agreed to review a 1986 Missouri law that "protects the fetus from the moment of conception" and bans the use of public funds and facilities for abortions. Thus, the court has opened the possibility of reversing all or part of the Roe v. Wade ruling.

With similar enthusiasm, on Jan. 23, the Supreme Court demonstrated its willingness to toss Martin Luther King's "dream" onto the trashheap.

The court struck down a Richmond, Va., ordinance that set aside 30 percent of publicworks funds to minority-owned construction companies. In so doing, the judges declared that state and local governments may use racial quotas or preferences only as "a last resort" in an "extreme case" —and only when there is hard proof of past racial bias.

This decision will make it more difficult for Blacks, other minorities, and women to fight against discriminatory policies in education and in the workplace. Two important court cases (in which workers sued their bosses for racial discrimination and harassment) are up for a hearing by the Supreme Court this term.

Affirmative action was won by the mass actions of the civil rights and women's liberation movements of the 1960s and early (continued on page 4, in “[(continued from page 1) '70s. But these movements…]”)

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Nothing sets off legal mania as much as women's internal plumbing. Judges, presidents, preachers, popes, kings, and dictators have passed laws concerning the uterus, fertility, and sexual enjoyment (or lack thereof).

The need to control what women do with their bodies has been an allconsuming passion of dominant males since the advent of private property. After all, you wouldn't allow your horses, cows, and sheep any freedom. Why allow your main domestic chattel, your wife, any choices?

The first law controlling women's bodies was passed in 150 A.D. Clement of Alexandria ruled that procreation is not merely good but sacred and that, therefore, procreation is the sole "lawful reason for conjugal intercourse."

In the 4th century A.D., St. Augustine maintained that the male embryo becomes a human being 40 days after conception and a female 80 days after conception. Although abortion is a sin, St. Augustine ruled, it is not murder.

From the 4th century until 1591, the Catholic Church seesawed back and forth on whether abortion was a sin or murder, or both. In 1803, Great Britain outlawed abortion after quickening but allowed abortion in the early stages.

In 1821, Connecticut passed the first law against abortion after quickening but allowed abortion in early stages. In the 1860s, many states passed comprehensive, restrictive, criminal abortion laws— many of which remained in effect until 1973. In fact, abortion was outlawed in every state until 1973; only the penalities differed.

On Jan. 22, 1973, criminal laws against abortion across the nation were declared unconstitutional; the court held that abortion during the first two trimesters of pregnancy is a matter between a woman and her doctor. That was the famous Roe v. Wade ruling, which made abortion legal in this country.

"The president hears you"

Once again, the legislators, judges, evangelists, presidents, cabinet ministers, and the ruling rich are organizing foaming-at-themouth right-wingers in the streets to abolish a woman's right to control her own body. Thousands of "know nothings" have been using totally illegal methods to shut the Morgan are sauro abortion clinics down.

Our president, "gentle and kindly" George Bush, greeted these political Neanderthals on Jan. 22 and assured them he was behind their illegal actions 100 percent.

Bush addressed the outlaws over a loudspeaker: "This is what I think.... The Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade was wrong and should be overturned. I think America needs a human-life amendment." He went on, "I promise you that the president hears you now and stands with you in a cause that must be won."

But "Operation Rescue," which is spearheading a wide-ranging ruling-class assault on democratic rights, is triggering a defensive movement by tens of thousands of women and their supporters. Women are outraged by the fascist-like attacks on clinic after clinic, in city after city.

If these people are permitted to get away with their gangster tactics today, tomorrow they may start sitting down in front of synagogues and mosques, shutting them down because they worship a false god, or shutting down hospitals because blood transfusions violate their beliefs, or shutting down libraries because they disapprove of their books-eventually shutting down union halls and political parties which they decide are "immoral."

The ruling class is financing and encouraging these experiments in extra-legal activity. While they permit the Bible-thumpers to break the law with nothing more than a slap on the wrist, they regularly throw the book at unions who dare to put more than a few pickets at struck factory gates.

But just as workers in the 1930s told the ruling class to take their anti-labor laws and shove them, so will women do the same when denied their democratic and human right to control their bodies.

The Missouri law Now the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a 1986 Missouri law that "protects the fetus from the moment of conception and bars the use of public funds to counsel or encourage abortion" as well as barring "the use of public facilities for the procedure."

By not limiting its review to the law's restrictions on abortion, the Supreme Court left the door open to possible reversal of the Roe v. Wade decision itself. A decision by the court in favor of any portion of the Missouri law would seriously undermine the right of women to plan their families.

The first wave of feminism from the 1840s until the 1920s won women the right to vote; the second wave of feminism from the 1960s through the 1970s won reproductive rights for women. The third wave of feminism to defend these gains will make the first and second waves seem like little splashes.

The enemies of human rights will not be allowed to again condemn our sisters and daughters to the horrors of back-alley abortions. All out on April 9! Demonstrate for women's rights! •