The Leak — What it Means for Abortion Rights
by Marcus Otono
The recent leak of a “first draft” of a majority opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), repealing the Roe v Wade judgment that legalized abortion rights throughout the United States, has caused an explosion of anger and protests nationwide. The Court will deliver its final ruling in late June or early July. More
Texas Law Triggers Nationwide Attack on Women’s Right to Choose
by Marcus Otono
Texas has become the testing ground for a new approach to the nearly 50 year-long battle over abortion rights in the United States.
A new law – SB8 – took effect on 1 September which prohibits terminations after the detection of a fetal heartbeat, around six weeks into a pregnancy. There are no exceptions made for rape nor incest. Abortions will still be permitted in case of a risk to the mother’s life or health, but the exceptions are so narrowly defined that healthcare providers will interpret them conservatively to avoid being sued. More
International Women’s Day, 2021
League for the Fifth International
2020 will long be remembered for the enormous scale of the public health, economic and social crisis triggered by Covid19. It should also be remembered because it exposed in the starkest terms how capitalism oppresses and exploits working women. The fact that women play a huge role in essential, but poorly paid and precarious, jobs, that the family home is all too often the site of domestic violence, which has shot up during the pandemic, and that, as the crisis ends, governments and employers will seek to make them pay for the costs of the crisis, all testifies to this. More
Evangelical Christianity – The Shock Troops of the Right
by Kayla Molodoy
For decades, the Christian right in the US has placed opposition to abortion at the center of its political mission, weaponizing sexual and reproductive issues to mobilize a mass following. Since its collective turn towards political activism during Reagan’s triumphant 1980 presidential election campaign, evangelicalism has been the backbone of the Republican Party in the US, and is becoming increasingly politicized in Latin America, particularly in Bolsonaro’s Brazil. More
Fight the Assault on Abortion Rights!
by Marcus Otono
The US state of Alabama recently made news and possibly history, by enacting the harshest abortion law in the US in this year of harsh abortion laws. Following on the heels of laws to restrict abortion, enacted or introduced in 28 states since January of this year, the Alabama law makes abortion in the state into a Class A felony, equivalent to murder, rape, and armed robbery. The Alabama statute not only makes abortion a crime punishable by imprisonment for up to 99 years for providers, but it allows no exceptions for victims of rape or incest. With this law, it’s probable that a brutal rape that results in pregnancy, will receive a lighter punishment than the doctor who terminates the pregnancy. More
March 8 – All out on International Women’s Day!
International Secretariat of the League for the Fifth International
March 8, International Women’s Day, will see millions of women worldwide rally in demonstrations and mass meetings. In a number of countries, they will respond to the call for a global women’s strike, as they did in recent years. In Spain, an unprecedented six million took up the appeal issued by women’s organisations and feminists, joined by rank and file trade unionists, who successfully initiated strike action and were able to pressurise their leaderships into giving it tacit support. More
We Need a Working Class Women’s Movement!
At a time of increasing political instability and tension that has produced Donald Trump, it’s reassuring to see one old tradition reasserting itself against a global lurch to the right. With the call for strike action on International Women’s Day another major festival is returning to its working class and socialist roots in textile and garment workers’ strikes at the turn of the 20th century. More