the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Mar 29, 2010
Bart Stupak, leader of the anti-abortion Democrats, was invited to a White House event on March 21, where Obama issued an executive order stating, “The Act maintains current Hyde Amendment restrictions governing abortion policy and extends those restrictions to the newly-created health insurance exchanges.”
In fact, the Senate version of the health care bill already said no federal funds could pay for abortions. But by re-stating the restrictions, Obama clearly appealed to every politician willing to attack women who need an abortion but cannot afford to pay for one. And he appealed to the reactionary parts of the population.
Wealthy women never have problems getting abortions. The Hyde Amendment has always been a method to attack poor and working class women, making it virtually impossible for them to get an abortion. Already by 2000, eight out of nine counties in the U.S. had no doctors who would perform abortions, thanks to all the legal restrictions in place. These restrictions are voted on every year, by Democrats and Republicans, as an attachment to the annual budget bill. The Hyde Amendment has been reauthorized every year since it was first passed in 1976.
Obama coldly calculated how to gain votes on the misery women face. And the anti-abortion killers of doctors will understand they have support for their outrageous attacks on women’s doctors and clinics–support going right back to the White House.
Women can make their own calculations about politicians who attack them.