Tens of thousands have taken to the streets of the US to protest against the Supreme Court ruling that will deny the right to abortion to up to 40 million women.
This is the biggest attack on women’s rights for 50 years, and it will be poor working-class and ethnic minority women who don’t have the resources to travel hundreds of miles to an abortion ‘sanctuary state’ who will be hardest hit.
Key to defending and extending abortion rights in the US will be building a mass movement with roots in the workplaces, colleges, schools and communities: a movement that can link together the struggle for abortion rights with social movements against racism, for LGBTQ+ rights and, most importantly, the fight by workers in the workplaces against the cost-of-living crisis and for decent pay, jobs and conditions.
There can be no confidence in the pro-big business Democratic party to defend abortion rights. A third, independent party is needed, based on the workers’ and social movements that can fight for the interests of the working class and oppressed groups.
Choice
Protests are also taking place in cities around Britain in solidarity with all those whose reproductive rights are under attack in the US.
Speaking at the 600-strong demo in Bristol, teacher and Socialist Party member Sheila Caffrey said: “I want to take up this idea of ‘pro-choice’. Pro-choice should be that you are actually allowed make a choice.
“And that’s not just having laws around abortion. We also need to have the right to say if and when we want to have children.
“We need to totally eradicate poverty. People should not want to have an abortion simply because they don’t think they can afford to bring up a child.
“We need to also demand, in the workplace, free and flexible quality childcare. The amount of wages people are having to spend on just being able to look after their own children, while still being forced to work, is not a situation we should have.
“And let’s come to wages themselves. We demand a really decent minimum wage. Not what we get at the moment. But at least £15 an hour.
“And proper maternity and paternity leave, so people, if they wish to, can spend that time with their children, instead of being forced back into the workplace. And the right for decent public housing.
“And this obviously needs to be a collective fight. It can’t just be the ones and twos of us, when it affects us, but all of us banding together.
“As well as being our choice, we also need a society which is under our control. Otherwise, all our hard-won rights are just ripped away from us again.
“So let’s take this fight to the streets, to education and to our workers to demand a society that is one we need, one we deserve and one we control.”
