A Revolutionary Communist Viewpoint on Abortion and Women's Liberation
The state claims it has a "vested interest" in protecting the life of "pre-born" Americans. But what is this vested interest? Surely not some selfless interest in children in general! Millions of children in the U.S. suffer from lack of adequate health care, nutrition, day care, education, etc., as a matter of routine and as a direct result of this system's policies. Millions of children around the world suffer the terrible repercussions of U.S. imperialist policies ranging from starvation to the ravages of war. So what is this "vested interest"? It can only be a vested interest in regulating the lives and actions of women.
This is a stark example of how property relations--which lie at the heart of capitalist society--are also at the heart of the abortion issue. From the point of view of those who run this country, women are property to be controlled. And fetuses are property that has become politically and ideologically very useful in their efforts to put women down.
Fetuses Are Not Children
A pregnancy is a nine-month process during which a fertilized egg grows, develops and goes through a series of transformations before it can finally become a baby--a new human being--at the time of its birth. BEFORE birth, it is not a child or a person with an independent existence. It is a developing mass of tissue integrally connected to the woman's vital biological processes. It is part of that woman with no separate social existence. It has the potential to become human. But it is not yet a separate social being that should have separate social rights. For that it must have entered society as a separate entity. That is, it must have been born.
Here lies the heart of the struggle around abortion: As long as reproduction is rooted in individual women, the basis exists for the social regulation of reproduction to be an oppressive thing for women. Exactly because of this, the overall physical and social well-being of women must take priority over any subordinate processes, such as reproduction. This is a question of women's health. But even more, it is a question of women's right to function fully in society.
A woman who is forced to bear a child against her will is assaulted and degraded in body and spirit. On the other hand, a woman who can control her own reproduction and decide whether and when to have children will be stronger, more independent, and better able to deal with the world at large, outside the confines of the family. She will be better able to lift her head, better able to dream and visualize the way the world COULD BE. And she will be better able to act to realize these dreams. Stronger women make stronger fighters, for themselves, for their children, for all the women, men, and children everywhere who have known conditions of oppression.
I see Humanism here. How sad to find family "confining". How very sad to see abortion as the answer for "independence" or for "strength". I thought we were to depend on God for all that? I'm to depend on myself and a "choice" to give me a stronger character or reach my dreams? Without the option of "choice" women will fail at life. (Gosh, I wonder how my grandmother, who had no “choice” option ever made it in this cruel world)? We will never amount to anything. Basically what feminism wants me to believe is, I want something more in life. I’m a failure if I haven’t reached my dreams (and used abortion to get there). Sorry! My children are my dreams.
I find Feminism insulting to my intelligence and my womanhood. How very rude.
Stronger women make stronger fighters, for themselves, for their children, for all the women, men, and children everywhere who have known conditions of oppression.
Odd! Abortion in Russia surely didn’t give women the strength to overthrow their government. How on EARTH did abortion make them stronger fighters for their children under conditions of oppression. How many years did it take the Soviet Union to collapse? More like, abortion makes stronger, more efficient workers of the STATE.
And to stay on topic, I'll play with this sentence: better able to dream and visualize the way the world COULD BE. Guaranteed abortion will enable her to dream and visualize…..WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN.