An alliance for reproductive freedom

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and his bounty hunters are on the prowl for women, their abortion providers and anyone who aids them. Senate Bill 8 spells death for women's issues and our fight for jobs, education and economic independence. Denied access to abortion, the poor, people with disabilities and of color become targets of forced sterilization. This is genocide; the opposite of the right to choose when and if one bears a child.

Entrenched opponents of the right to control one's own reproduction are no more reconciled to women's gains than white supremacists are to gains Black people have achieved during and since Reconstruction after the Civil War.

The KKK operated as a lawless shock troop of the white aristocracy to rain terror on Blacks after the Civil War. Clinic firebombers served as the terrorist arm of the right-to-life movement after Roe vs. Wade became national law. Unable to overturn legal abortion with violence, they turned to legislation. Now, defenders of S.B. 8 demand courts stop abortion and mobilize vigilantes to do it.

The right wing's assaults on abortion complement their attacks on voting rights and the rights of workers to unionize. Their goal is to destroy the feminist, civil rights and labor movements.

Despite rollbacks, a strong multiracial intersectional working-class movement could recover and strengthen reproductive rights. Today, more women and our allies are in key economic sectors and in union leadership than at any time in history.

Among them are essential workers weathering the COVID-19 storm and sustaining battles for family leave, child care, universal health care, humane immigration policies, voting rights and union representation. Their sheer economic weight and connections to communities they serve form the basis for a winning labor/community alliance to save and expand reproductive freedom. With broad support, this movement won't need vigilantism to accomplish its goals.

Mary Ann Curtis

Naperville