Although abortion rights have been in peril for decades, we should be alarmed now more than ever in light of the nomination of Samuel Alito. The possibility of overturning of the landmark ruling Roe v. Wade, which made abortion legal on Jan. 22, 1973, is no longer a stretch of the imagination. Even if Roe still stands, it is inevitable that anti-choice politicians will implement restrictions on abortion access as soon as they can conceive them. Abortion is inaccessible today with mandatory waiting periods, parental consent laws, the lack of Medicaid funding for poor women and the scarcity of abortion clinics. As a result, women, especially poor or young women, resort to unsafe abortions reminiscent of the pre-Roe days.
Before Roe, abortion resulted in tragedy for women experiencing the horrors of back-alley and self-induced abortions. Back-alley abortions were often conducted in dangerous areas, did not use anesthesia or sterile tools, were often performed by unqualified doctors who sexually harassed women and neglected any care after the procedure. Many women turned to self-induced abortions by using coat hangers, scissors, knitting needles and chemical toxins. Consequently, women often severely hemorrhaged or developed infections, leading to infertility or even death. Out of fear of arrest at the emergency room, seeking medical help was not an option.
Abortion is legal today but remains inaccessible. Women cannot return to the days of back-alley and self-induced abortions. This is not an issue of life and death for an unborn fetus, but for living, breathing women.
Abortion rights today are truly hanging by a thread. Not only must we worry about the Supreme Court, but we must also worry about our usual pro-choice allies, the Democrats. The Democrats, looking for a "moral" image after losing the 2004 election, are on the defense in the abortion war and have consequently compromised their position on abortion rights. This becomes evident through the softened rhetoric of abortion rights poster child, Hillary Rodham Clinton, who claimed that abortions should be rare. While the right wing is aggressively pushing its anti-abortion crusade in Congress, the Democrats are supporting anti-choice legislation and even taking on anti-choice initiatives on their own. For example, the ban on late-term abortions gathered huge bipartisan support. Even more outrageous, Sen. John Kerry demonstrated the unreliability of his pro-choice position when recently co-authoring the "Religious Freedom in the Workplace" bill with Christian Sen. Rick Santorum. The bill allows pharmacists to deny women emergency contraception.
It is clear that many pro-choice politicians are not sticking up for us. In today's political climate, we cannot depend on politicians or the Supreme Court to protect our rights.
The only way we can defend abortion rights is to fight for them ourselves instead of relying on politicians. We won our right to abortion through a strong, unapologetic grassroots struggle. With the momentum of the civil rights movement and the antiwar movement, the women's liberation movement emerged in the mid-1960s. Thousands of women and men raised demands for abortion rights, childcare and equal pay for women in hundreds of public demonstrations. They employed direct action tactics such as marches, sit-ins and rallies. We won abortion rights as a result of the mass radical movement, despite having a conservative-packed Supreme Court and Richard Nixon in office.
After Roe, the movement has faded as a result of a shift in politics, which has transformed the grassroots struggle into a lobbying quest. Today the remnants of the movement are a massive lobbying campaign to collect money and push a watered-down form of activism (i.e. write a letter, make a phone call, or click the "take action" button on an e-mail). The donations fund campaigns of politicians who passively allow the right wing to push their anti-abortion agenda as restriction after restriction is passed without contention. Mainstream feminist organizing today has lost ground won by the second-wave movement and demobilized energy that currently exists by incorporating a defeatist strategy that sets low expectations.
To regain lost ground and make additional strides for abortion rights, we must rebuild the grassroots fight that proved successful in 1973. Instead of wearing a pro-choice button and signing the occasional petition, we have to say "enough is enough" and join in solidarity to make our voices truly heard. This means making uncompromising demands and incorporating direct action tactics that will force politicians to take a strong stand for abortion rights. This is a cause worth fighting for and it's up to us to take it on.
Mingwei Huang ([email protected]) is a University of Wisconsin student and member of Our Bodies, Our Rights!
