Working women in the US have been set back 50 years in reproductive and sexual rights following the US Supreme Court's decision to overturn the constitutionality of abortion rights. This ultra-reactionary decision overturns the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling - which first recognised unrestricted abortion before 23 weeks gestation - and leaves it up to each state to decide on this right. In 26 of them, those in Republican hands, laws limiting or banning abortion have already been passed. Within an hour of the Supreme Court announcing its ruling, at least three states - Kentucky, Louisiana and South Dakota - had already banned all forms of abortion. Five more quickly followed.
What happened on 24 June in the US is extremely serious and sets a very dangerous precedent. The extreme right-wing Trumpists and their misogynist, racist and classist ideology pose a severe threat to poor women, LGBTI people and the country's working population as a whole.
A triumph of Trumpism
The Supreme Court, which is the highest judicial instance in the US, today has a conservative majority of six to three, something unheard of in decades. The five far-right ultra-Catholic judges who in their ruling justify the measure - Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh, Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch, the last three appointed by Trump - have used grotesque 'arguments'. "The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion" because "it is not rooted in history and is not a component of ordered liberty," they say.
The US Constitution is the oldest "Magna Carta" still in force in the world. The text dates back to 1787 and has remained virtually unchanged since then. In this way, these five Trumpists are trying to take millions of women back to the 18th century, sending to the stake almost fifty years of rights won, of the protection of the law to be able to have an abortion and of the fight for our freedom.
Despite the fact that nearly 85% of Americans are in favour of legal abortion in at least some circumstances, the most reactionary sectors of the state apparatus supported by Trump and the ultra-right-wing army that supports the former president have made the attack on this right one of their hallmarks.
This judicial decision will have a devastating effect on millions of women, especially working, poor, black and Latina women - the risk of dying in childbirth is three times higher in the African-American community. According to the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), the Supreme Court's decision will affect an estimated 40 million women and girls of reproductive age who may no longer have access to abortion. IPPF estimates that women's mortality could increase by 14% in a country that already has a high maternal mortality rate and which experienced a sharp increase in 2020.
Abortions will continue to occur, but only the wealthy will be able to afford to travel thousands of miles and pay for them. The Guttmacher Institute estimates that some 36 million women of reproductive age would live in states without access to abortion. Already between 2012 and 2017, at least 276,000 women terminated their pregnancies outside their home state.
Trumpism is on the offensive, but the attacks on abortion rights have not started now. In the last ten years, 26 states have introduced laws to restrict voluntary terminations of pregnancy. Texas, in fact, introduced the "Latino law" which prohibits termination of pregnancy if the doctor can detect embryonic heart activity - which can occur as early as the sixth week - and does not provide for exceptions even in cases of incest or rape. Inspired by this legislation, Oklahoma passed the most restrictive so far in May: it prohibits abortion from the moment of fertilisation, except in cases where the mother's life is threatened.
The leadership of the Democratic Party is complicit
There is no doubt that Donald Trump and the far right have led this unprecedented offensive against women's rights in the US. But the position of the Democratic Party has been totally passive and, from the time the Supreme Court draft was leaked until its approval, they have tried to minimise the attack it entailed.
The social networks have been filled with messages of indignation. From Joe Biden, to Nancy Pelosi, Michelle and Barack Obama or other NGO spokespersons linked to the Democratic apparatus, everyone threw their hands to their heads and wondered how this could possibly happen in a fair and democratic country like the USA. But the reality is that they have not lifted a finger to prevent it.
With the popular support for abortion rights in the USA and after the spontaneous protests on May 3, a campaign of mobilisation could have been launched to stand up to the reaction. But no!
The Democratic Party, as a good squire of the capitalist system, has limited itself to telling us about the legal difficulties and its small minority in Congress.
With the mid-term elections on the horizon, there are some who even see the repeal of abortion rights as an opportunity. Heather Williams, executive director of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, put it this way: "The fall of Roe v. Wade will give voters a sense of motivation and urgency. We have to take advantage of it. An insult to the millions of people who were willing to organise and mobilise to prevent this situation from coming to pass.
Building a movement in the streets to defend abortion rights
Last May, 380 demonstrations and marches were organised in response to the leaked draft. With the repeal of Roe, the same images of anger and struggle have been repeated. Protests - some spontaneous and some organised by Planned Parenthood - have taken place in more than 70 locations across the US. In New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Seattle, thousands upon thousands of people even had to face the tear gas thrown by the police. The most massive, in front of the Supreme Court in Washington, gathered for hours a mass of people who kept shouting "My body, my decision" or "Abort the Court!
One protester's statement perfectly sums up the mood of those who filled the streets of the United States that weekend: "We are not going to allow it. Let them get ready because we are not going to allow it".
Working women, militant youth and working people as a whole can only rely on their own strength and push for a movement in the streets in defence of abortion and all the rights that the Trump offensive is targeting. A movement based on centre-to-centre and neighbourhood-to-neighbourhood organising, linking the feminist and LGTBI struggle to the battle for better wages, against poverty and racism. Only in this way will we be able to stop the Catholic Church and its different variants, Trump and the capitalists and defend our rights and decent living conditions.
