'No doctors, or judges, or churches condemned abortion before quickening of the fetus. It was considered to be a medically safe as well as socially acceptable procedure'

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SOCIALIST ACTION JULY 1989 7 Women's safety came first The first law passed in the U.S. concerning abortion occurred in 1821 by the state of Connecticut. The issue in this law was the method of using poison to induce abortion, and the focus of concern was on safeguarding the health of women. In actuality this was an anti-poison law and did not interfere with or alter the common law as it related to abortion. It declared one method to be illegal in the state of Connecticut, and only the person who administered the poison was subject to punishment, not any woman who was seeking an abortion.

All abortion laws passed in the first half of the 19th century dealt with safeguarding the health of women. None of these laws held women responsible for any crime. The only ones held responsible for a crime were those who endangered the lives of women. It is evident the states were interested in protecting the health of women from dangerous medical practices. The states were not interested in making abortion a crime. In fact, in 1828, New York passed a law providing for therapeutic abortion (abortion past quickening) for the sake of the health of the mother.

What happened to change the laws?

The most significant campaign against abortion is tied to the history of the medical profession in this country, specifically to the formation of the American Medical Association (AMA). As late as the 1820s medical doctors, that is, those who graduated from medical schools, were looked at as a menace to society. Medical schools were commonly known as degree mills for rich kids.

These graduates had no real knowledge of medicine and basically were unable to help sick people, much less cure them. They were, however, known to maim and to kill their unfortunate patients. Consequently these American Medical Association began to seriously organize against abortion and to attempt to put the procedure under AMA jurisdiction and regulation.

Horatio Storer, an AMA doctor, and Walter Channing, a Harvard professor, are two names to remember in the formation of this anti-abortion campaign. It was Storer who laid the groundwork in this campaign and Channing who wrote most of the literature. At the 1857 AMA convention Storer urged his cohorts to take a stand against abortion; he reaffirmed this position at the 1859 convention. It wasn't until the late 1860s, however, that Storer's proposition became active reality.

The post-Civil War period presented social, political, and economic conditions which became fertile soil for Storer's and the AMA's developing campaign against abortion.

• There had been a sharp rise in abortion between 1840 and 1870 (some sources quoting that from 35 to 40 percent of all pregnancies ended in abortion).

• Those who were keeping track could no longer deny that white, married women were actively using abortion to limit and postpone their families.

• The first wave of feminism was being felt. Young women were leaving home, not to get married but to educate themselves and to work in their own behalf. points: abortion was murder, abortion was a sin, and abortion was an unsafe medical procedure.

The AMA attempted to recruit those doctors they had labeled "irregulars" to the campaign against abortion, even publishing special literature and making special tours for this effort. Those "irregulars" who refused to be converted were from then on called "quacks."

Role of the church Prior to the Civil War the AMA and organized religion were uncooperative towards each other. The AMA accused church leaders of valuing abortion, accepting abortion because they were afraid to criticize the practice. As the AMA gained momentum they challenged the churches to join the moral trend-setting.

One of the first public statements by a church leader was in 1869 by Bishop Spaulding, who condemned abortion as murder of an infant before birth, adding "no mother was permitted the death of an infant. .. not even to preserve her own life."

Let it be noted that the religious communities of America put more effort into the temperance movement than they ever put into the crusade against abortion. ruinous futures for unwanted children, or the fate of possible criminal charges, or death for women; we, the majority, the working class, must organize and lead our own independent campaign to demand abortion remain safe and legal.

Liberation

FIGHT The Fight for Women's Rights Today and Sylvia Weinstein Price: $1.25.

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Scan page 8

... Miners extend strike Pittston coal miners and families demonstrate in Charleston, W. Va., on June I1.

(continued from page 1: “Coal miners expand strike against bosses' offensive”)

Sundays), in healthcare and pension benefits.

The company was itching for a fight. When the previous contract expired on Feb. 1, 1988, Pittston unilaterally cut off healthcare benefits to more than 1500 pensioners, surviving spouses, and disabled miners. The UMWA called the strike after a National Labor Relations Board ruling charged Pittston with "unfair labor practices."

The strike came at a time when fortunes for the UMWA were not good. With the growth of non-union mining and the closing down of union mines, coupled with increases in productivity through automation (longwalling and strip mining), the UMWA membership has dropped from 500,000 in 1950 to 65,000 members today.

It is in this context that the union was forced to take a stand and wage a battle at Pittston. Another defeat would directly pose the question of the continued existence of the UMWA, the most militant and democratic union in the country.

Pittston imports scabs

Pittston thought it could defeat the strike by hiring local unemployed workers as strikebreakers. The unemployment rate in the coal fields of Virginia and West Virginia is over 20 percent.

But the company wasn't able to recruit a sizeable force of strikebreakers from these depressed areas. Local working people consider "scabbing" the worst possible sin—to be dealt with accordingly. So Pittston imported scabs from other areas. Yet even these strikebreakers refused to work at night on swing and graveyard shifts.

From the beginning, the miners were faced with the intervention of the Commonwealth of Virginia on the side of the company. Democratic Party Gov. Gerald Baliles dispatched 300 state troopers to the coal fields to intimidate the strikers.

Despite the police presence, the miners have continued their mass picketing and civil disobedience. Pittston is now operating at less than 10 percent of its capacity. This is the result of the solid community support for the strikers, which has transformed the strike into a social movement. Thousands have been arrested-including high-school students, teachers, and religious leaders.

The state and federal courts in "right to work" Virginia have issued injunctions against the UMWA. The union now faces the possibility of being fined over $1.4 trillion— plus prison terms for its leaders.

Yet the UMWA maintains that it has a First Amendment right to freedom of speech and assembly. The Pittston strikers are confident they can win.

One striking coal miner told me that the employer always acts as if the miners are stupid. But then he proudly described how the miners have coun tered every move by the company and the government. He also felt that if it were not for the intervention of the government, they could have won the strike in three days.

State Democratic Party convention The open collaboration of the state government and courts with Pittston's strikebreaking has encouraged the UMWA to consider some political solutions to this battle.

On June 10, 1989, the UMWA organized a protest against Gov. Baliles at the State Democratic Party Convention. UMWA delegates, with the reluctant support of AFL-CIO delegates, staged a protest inside the convention hall when Baliles spoke. The union delegates tried to convince the state Democratic Party to support the miners, but they were blatantly rejected and not even allowed to speak on the issue.

To underscore the fact that the entire Democratic Party machine is lining up behind Pittston, their new candidate for governor, Lt. Gov. Doug Wilder, has come out squarely in support of the actions carried out by Gov. Baliles.

Consequently, the UMWA is considering running its own workers' solidarity election campaign-independent of the Democratsfor the main statewide posts in Virginia. The campaign is being proposed as a protest against the anti-labor and pro-employer policies of the Democratic Party. The election campaign would also be a tactic to counter the anti-union propaganda generated by the press and the state government.

Rally in Charleston

I attended a June 11 solidarity rally in Charleston, W. Va. Speakers from many labor unions gave support to the Pittston strike and to the striking Eastern Airlines workers.

The speakers list included William Winpisinger, retiring president of the International Association of Machinists (IAM); Joyce Miller, president of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW); and a Chinese student from a West Virginia university, who sought solidarity with the struggle of China's students and workers.

But it was the last speaker-Richard Trumka, president of the UMWA-who set the tone for the rally. He spoke about the Pittston strike and the attempt of the state and federal government to break the UMWA.

Trumka pointed out that the state refused to fine the company when seven miners died in a mine accident but, on the other hand, was fining and jailing striking miners. He declared that the UMWA was on strike not only against Pittston but also against the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Trumka exposed the hypocrisy of the U.S government when it claimed to support workers in Poland and China who are fighting for democracy and justice. At the same time, he noted, government authorities physically assaulted, fined, and jailed striking miners in southwest Virginia.

Making a direct analogy with the civil rights movement, Trumka declared that the UMWA would defy all unjust injunctions and laws that oppose the basic rights of working people to achieve justice. The day after Trumka's militant speech, the "wildcat" strikes began.

Willingness to fight

These "wildcat" strikes demonstrate the willingness and capacity of the union ranks to fight. The UMWA has had a democratic tradition from the time of the Miners for Democracy in the early 1970s. This makes it very difficult, if not impossible, for the ON dikal to housebreak the membership—as in other international unions in the recent period.

The coal bosses and the government are faced with a situation they did not foresee. In order to defeat the miners, they now face the likelihood of a never-ending war in the coal fields. But, in fact, the coal operators have been conducting such a war for years.

Despite its small size, the UMWA is carrying on a fight that has the potential to win; it could signal the end of the recent spiral of capitulation, concessions, and betrayals that American trade unions have suffered since the PATCO strike in 1981.

The Pittston strike, combined with the solidarity "wildcats" of the UMWA rank and file, could become a turning point for labor. It deserves the support of all working people. The UMWA membership has pointed the way forward by expanding the strike. They are teaching the American labor movement some very fundamental lessons.

ON STRIKE

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