The Republican-controlled House of Representatives has wasted little time this year in getting started on attacking women’s reproductive rights. H.R. 1, the first bill passed this session, had an amendment attached to ban funding for Planned Parenthood, and H.R. 3, the so-called “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Bill,” was dedicated to extending the existing ban on the use of federal funding for abortions in as many new and inventive ways as possible.

H.R. 3 included a provision denying tax credits to small businesses offering private health plans that cover abortion services, as 87% of private plans now do, thus creating an incentive for insurance companies not to include abortion so as not to cut themselves off from part of their market. It also eliminated medical expense deductions for abortions – available for all other procedures – and eliminated the option of reimbursement for abortion costs from medical savings accounts.

H.R. 3 also made the Hyde Amendment – the 1977 ban on the use of federal funding for abortions – permanent, eliminating the need to renew it yearly.

The bill passed 251-175 with 16 Democrats joining the Republicans to vote for it.

Neither this bill nor the amendment on Planned Parenthood will become law, as the Senate is extremely unlikely to pass them, and the president indicated that he would veto H.R. 3 if necessary. However, these bills helped pave the way for Obama “compromising” on a 5% cut to Planned Parenthood in this year’s budget.

When the Tea Party first made headlines a couple of years ago, they claimed to be a new type of right-wing movement. Presenting themselves as fiscal conservatives, they focused their attacks on “moderate” Republicans. They also sought to distance themselves from the religious conservatism that had been the hallmark of the right wing of the Republican Party for the last few decades. They felt that there were gains to be made in many parts of the country by sticking to core economic conservative positions while avoiding a focus on issues such as prayer in the schools, creationism and abortion.

Since the election, however, at least in regard to abortion, Tea Party Republicans have continued the well-trodden path of the Christian right.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, in the first three months of this year, state legislators enacted 15 new laws related to reproductive health and rights, and 120 further bills were in process. Fifty-six percent of these were seeking to restrict abortion access, in comparison with 38% last year.

There are a number of states where abortion barely exists as a result of multiple legal restrictions. In South Dakota, for example, there is only one clinic providing the procedure and doctors have to be flown in twice a week from out of state to perform it. Despite this, the legislature just passed further restrictions (see below).

It would be easy to continue listing – in graphic detail – the myriad attacks on reproductive rights
and their cumulative effect on the availability – or lack of availability – of abortion in this country, but as a socialist newspaper it is the job of Justice to try and answer two pressing questions. One, why has this creeping attack on choice been so successful, and two, how do we fight back?

The Democrats are deeply complicit in these attacks. The Hyde Amendment has to be reaffirmed annually, and the Democrats have helped this process along a whopping 33 times.

Hyde was enacted under Democratic President Jimmy Carter: with his support. The Democrats’ support of a woman’s right to choose goes as far as sometimes holding Republicans back in their legislative attacks but never as far as reinstating fundamental rights that were fought for and won by the movements of the ‘60s and ‘70s.

The “Women’s Movement” – or its so-called representative lobbying groups – compound this position by insisting on viewing the Democrats as “their” party, which they aren’t.

They further reduce the ability of working women to fight for their reproductive rights by leading us into the dead end of an alliance with big-business liberals. A single mother depending on food
stamps to bolster her miserable income has less in common with Hillary Clinton than she does with a husband and father who has just lost his job and still has to help support his family.

As long as Roe v. Wade remains in existence there will be freedom of choice in this country for those women who can afford it. It is working-class women who are having their access denied, and by the same legislatures that want to scapegoat immigrants and deny union rights.

The way forward for working women, for the struggle for reproductive rights, and for equality is to join with others who are fighting back. Women are engaged in struggles across the country, as unionized workers, as immigrants, and as school students.

As these movements grow, we need to be the first to call for working-class unity, to bring our struggles together and connect the issues, and to fight for the real needs of working people, including the right to choose.

Socialist Alternative stands for a woman’s right to choose when and whether to have children. We say: Defend abortion rights. We support full reproductive rights, including free, accessible birth control, sex education, paid maternity and paternity leave, and high-quality, affordable childcare.

Some of the Bills Passed at the State Level so Far This Year:

• Texas – Doctors must perform a sonogram at least 24 hours before an abortion and give the woman the opportunity to see the results and hear the heartbeat. If she declines, the doctor must
  describe what the sonogram shows, including the existence of legs, arms and internal organs.
• Kansas – Abortion services cannot be offered to minors without notarized written consent from both parents.
• South Dakota – Women must wait three days after their initial visit with the doctor who will provide the procedure and visit a crisis pregnancy center in the interim.
• Utah – Limits are set to abortion coverage in all private health plans, including those to be offered in the states’ health exchange. The existing “refusal clause” is expanded, allowing any hospital employee to refuse to participate “in any way” in an abortion.
• Indiana – All funding for Planned Parenthood is ended, abortions over 20 weeks are banned, and doctors will be required to tell women that a fetus can feel pain at or before 20 weeks (not medically proven), that human life begins when the egg is fertilized (a matter of personal belief), and that having an abortion can cause infertility (untrue).