How abortion rights were won in the US (From the Mouth of the Communists)

Socialist World NET ^ | 26 April 2004 | Ramy Khalil

[vannrox]

"...We must fight for every reform possible, but clearly reforms are not enough. To secure real reproductive freedom and put an end to sexism, we must overthrow the capitalist system itself..."

I notice that they don't even refer to the baby or the infant, nor do they discuss mother - daughter relationship. Instead they discuss "social Change"...all for the general benefit of "group Rights".

I find it hard to reconcile these kinds of rights when the quintensential aspects of human existance, family love and spirituality, are omitted.

[lilylangtree]

The attorneys that successfully won in the Roe v. Wade then went to work as staffers in the Carter White House.

[sportutegrl]

Abortions were not illegal before Roe v. Wade. Roe just took the right to regulate this abhorrent practice away from the states by "finding" a "right to abortion" in the Constitution. Overturning Roe now would not make abortions suddenly illegal, it would free up the states to set their own laws as to what is legal/illegal, such as third trimester abortions, partial birth, etc.

[Oratam]

ping for later reading

[JOE43270]

That makes all the sense in the world.

[bubman]

bump

[joesnuffy]

When Gynosaurs Ruled The Earth

[Mark in the Old South]

Re: "It is estimated that approximately one million women had illegal abortions annually before the procedure was legalized in 1973, which directly resulted in the deaths of some 5,000 women every year. "

In a just world the annual rate of deaths due to abortion would have matched the number of children aborted. One or two years of that and there would have been next to zero deaths for either. God does not always give us justice immediately to test us. Often wicked people prosper, sometimes for generations, but justice always comes, always.

[MichiganConservative]

It just made them humiliating, unsafe, and too often fatal.

Good to know abortions are not fatal for anyone anymore.

The authors seem to have missed the part about "doctors" who wanted to perform abortions making up surveys and statistics in a BS session and giving it to the media which reported it without fact-checking.

[RockinRye]

women could never be equal with men without control over their reproductive lives.

Does anyone writing this know where babies come from? How does the sexual choice itself not constitute control over one's reproductive life?

[Lorianne]

Women made the right to abortion a central demand of their movement because they understood that women could never be equal with men without control over their reproductive lives.

And they got it wrong. Abortion doesn't make women equal to men. Only demanding unconditional equality under the law will make women equal in social/polital terms to men. They forgot to demand that and instead took abortion as a poor substitute, a "condition" for equality.

The right to abortion is especially necessary in a society that ultimately expects women to bear the financial and emotional responsibilities of raising children, but pays women much lower wages than men.

Again, they got it backwards. Women should have instead demanded total UNCONDITIONAL equality with men. They should demand that men bear equal responsibility with women for raising children and they should demanded equal wages regardless of their parental status. Instead, what (some) women asked for and all women got was conditional equality.

Thanks a lot.

[The_Victor]

Women made the right to abortion a central demand of their movement because they understood that women could never be equal with men without control over their reproductive lives.

This statement is laughable. Women have always had control over their reproductive lives. Choose to reproduce, or choose not to, but once a child has been conceived, everyone involved has made their "choice".

[Fawnn]

The “realistic, practical” liberal strategy was quickly discarded as it became apparent that it was anything but practical, and the “extreme” socialist strategy of mass struggle and demanding the full legalization of abortion was adopted.

That reads like something put out by a liberal 2008 presidential candidate who's trying to distance herself from abortion. By blaming it on the socialist "types," she can show the red states that she has values. (Said with a former-candidate-who-showed-up-for-few-moments-in-VietNam-getting-his-fishing-license accent: "It wasn't the Democrats' fault; it was them commies!") ;)

[TigersEye]

Abortion is not about saving women’s lives!

Total Abortions since 1973

46,023,191

------------------------------------------------------------

Why the drop after 1960? (in deaths of women from illegal abortions)

The reasons were new and better antibiotics, better surgery and the establishment of intensive care units in hospitals. This was in the face of a rising population. Between 1967 and 1970 sixteen states legalized abortion. In most it was limited, only for rape, incest and severe fetal handicap (life of mother was legal in all states). There were two big exceptions — California in 1967, and New York in 1970 allowed abortion on demand. Now look at the chart carefully.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Abortion Statistics - Decision to Have an Abortion (U.S.)

· 25.5% of women deciding to have an abortion want to postpone childbearing

· 21.3% of women cannot afford a baby

· 14.1% of women have a relationship issue or their partner does not want a child

· 12.2% of women are too young (their parents or others object to the pregnancy)

· 10.8% of women feel a child will disrupt their education or career

· 7.9% of women want no (more) children

· 3.3% of women have an abortion due to a risk to fetal health

2.8% of women have an abortion due to a risk to maternal health

----------------------------------------------------------------------

So how many women’s lives have been saved by abortion?

Only about 3% of abortions since 1972 were reported to be “due to a risk to maternal health.” A reasonable person would recognize that not all of those cases represent a lethal risk. But let’s say they did. That means that nearly 45 million fetuses were butchered to save the lives of about 1.3 million women. Or put another way; 35 babies are killed to save each woman.

Abortion was legal in all 50 states prior to Roe v. Wade in cases of danger to the life of the woman.

[1st-P-In-The-Pod]

He forgives the sinner who repents and asks His mercy, bought by the blood of Jesus Christ for sinners.
Sometimes a mother who aborted her child realizes what she has done and repents, and asks forgiveness.

He paid for the sin of abortion, too, on that cross. Dying for us, and acceptable sacrifice to God, He showed us the way back from the terrible consequences of our hateful disobedience in this fallen state.

Just a little something to ballance out the thread. :)

[Mark in the Old South]

I agree with you. I was after all making a point. In 30 years we have had some 45-50 millions babies aborted. Lord knows how many suicides and ruined lives to boot. From a certain point of logic a couple of million in one or two years would most likely have saved many millions down the road. That being said God has other plans and wants something else from us besides obedience because it is so obviously in our selfish interest. He wants us to be obedient for love of Him, even when the self interest is less than clear, murky even, and yet we obey his laws anyway, even when evil people prosper and we suffer and look like life's failures.

We will all know who was truly wise in the end.

[PeterFinn]

"When U.S. troops returned home from World War II, the government waged a massive propaganda campaign glorifying the joys of motherhood as women’s duty in America’s fight against “communism,” hoping to push women back into the home to allow men to return to their jobs and superior social status."

Not true. The women who remained in the workforce after WW2 exasperated the economic effects of moving from a war time economy by depressing labor costs in constant dollars.

Simply put: The post war economy had to not only move to a post war status it had to absorb the millions of men who returned from the war to the workforce.

The population to labor ratio went from 1 in 8 Americans in the workforce to 1 in 5 and the laws of supply and demand kicked in.

The result is that productivity increased as the net cost of labor decreased. Employers could pay less money in constant dollars to attract workers and they did.

So now we have two-parent families where both parents have to work outside the house to pay the bills because it is the rare exception these days that one parent earns enough money to support the family.

If women were to leave the workforce that would increase the value of the men in the workforce (more or less doubling their constant dollar value) and would stabilize families.

Of course, stable families and prosperous families are the last things that Communist want because Communism can only take root in impoverished, ignorant, unstable cultures.

[JudgemAll]

Women made the right to abortion a central demand of their movement because they understood that women could never be equal with men without control over their reproductive lives.

Say what? So instead of having their own children testifying and advocating for these women's live, we have nursing homes and Mexican men coming in to do the advocacy.

Way to go, not.

[elbucko]

In a just world the annual rate of deaths due to abortion would have matched the number of children aborted.

In a just world someone that thinks like you would have never been conceived.