Defend reproductive justice for women!

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VOL. 34, NO. 3, MARCH 2016 WWW.SOCIALISTACTION.ORG U.S. $1 / CANADA $2 “The most significant abortion rights case in a gen­ eration.” “The greatest threat to reproductive justice in 25 years.” These are just a few of the headlines to the many articles providing background to the news that on March 2, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Whole Woman’s Health v. Heller­ stedt. Such claims are absolutely valid and accurately describe at the threat to women’s lives that is current­ ly posed by attempts to restrict access to abortion in dozens of states.

In the next few months, the Supreme Court will decide whether or not a 2013 Texas law called HB 2, which would leave only about 10 of the state’s 44 clinics open if upheld, is constitutional. HB2 requires clinic doctors to hold admitting privileges at nearby hospitals and requires the clinics themselves to meet the same standards as ambulatory surgical centers.

While the legislators who crafted this bill claim to have women’s well-being in mind, the American Med­ ical Association and the American College of Obste­ tricians and Gynecologists agree with abortion rights advocates that the restrictions would endanger wom­ en’s health by denying women the benefit of “well-researched, safe, and proven protocols.”

The absurdity of the right-wing claim that abor­ tion is a dangerous procedure is highlighted in a re­ port crafted by the Texas Policy Evaluation Project (TexPEP). Project researcher Dr. Daniel Grossman explained to MSNBC that while there has not been an abortion-related death in Texas since 2008, each year about 100 state women die due to complica­ tions related to pregnancy and childbirth. According to an authoritative study published by the University of California, San Francisco in 2014, the rate of ma­ jor complications from abortion is less than ¼ of one percent, or about the same rate as one would expect from complications from a colonscopy.

Despite the lack of any scientific basis for the Texas legislation, if the Supreme Court rules in favor of Hell­ erstedt, or ties 4-4 on the case, a lower court ruling upholding the Texas regulations would prevail, nearly identical rules in 10 states would be validated, and the door opened wide for the quick implementation of these onerous attacks nationwide.

On March 4, the Supreme Court temporarily blocked implementation of an “admitting-privileges” law that would close all but one clinic in Louisiana, a state of 4.7 million people. That temporary block has buoyed hopes that the Supreme Court will rule in defense of a woman’s right to abortion in the Texas case, discour­ aging further advances in the legislative onslaught against reproductive justice. While a ruling against the state of Texas would be a huge victory, it would not end the war on women and the growing threats Susan Walsh / AP (Above) Abortion rights protesters in front of U.S. Supreme Court building on March 2.

to reproductive justice. The oral arguments come as women’s rights advocates are reflecting on the al­ ready dramatic decline in the availability of abortion in the United States.

According to Esmé Deprez, author of “The Vanishing U.S. Abortion Clinic,” a quarter of clinics on American soil have closed in the last five years, in great mea­ sure due to reactionary legislation. In Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming, there is only one clinic left per state. The court is not considering the many other restrictions, including waiting periods, parental notification, and the fail­ ure of insurance policies and Medicaid to cover costs that have continued to make unplanned pregnancy a nightmare for the young, the low-waged, and those residing in the South or rural areas.

And if the “well-being of the woman” legal avenue is closed, those determined to control women’s fertility will come up with a new legislative angle.

In Texas, according to TexPEP, the implementation of the requirement ”or physicians to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital resulted in a reduction of abortions in the first six months of 13% and an in­ (continued on page 11, in “No to Trudeau’s Middle East military mission creep”)

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Carl Sack / Socialist Action dairy farmers even donated money to charter buses to Madison for the protest. As workers themselves, many farmers undoubtedly sympathize on a personal level with their Latin@ employees. But farms and other businesses would also lose out on underpaid and heavily exploited labor if undocumented workers were to stop coming to the state.

The protest was aimed at defeating two bills currently making their way through the state legislature. One bill would prohibit local communities from issuing their own ID cards to undocumented immigrants, who are legally barred from obtaining drivers licenses in the state. Mil­ waukee officials are planning to begin issuing such IDs this year, allowing undocumented workers to open bank accounts, file court papers, and receive local services that require a photo ID. The IDs will not be usable for voting, driving, or obtaining safety net benefits like food stamps, even though undocumented workers contribute income taxes that pay for these benefits.

The other bill prohibits so-called “sanctuary city” laws that prevent cops from asking someone about their immi­ gration status and reporting undocumented workers to Im­ migration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Three cities in the state currently have some form of these protections on the books, although city officials in all three have dis­ avowed the “sanctuary city” title, and local law enforce­ ment agencies still cooperate with ICE in criminal cases. The bill could increase racial profiling and prevent immi­ grants from reporting wage theft or personal crimes, mak­ ing it easier to exploit and victimize the undocumented. One of the major slogans of the march was “Wisconsin is Not Arizona,” referring to that state’s notorious SB 1070

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