New Missouri law threatens women’s fight for equality, family planning – The Militant

....In 1973 the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision decriminalized abortion, creating a “right to privacy” for a woman and her doctor to carry out an abortion up to the point of “fetal viability,” roughly 24 weeks. The court’s liberal majority had decided to act on its political views, shortcutting a far-reaching debate raging then over women’s rights. They based their ruling on medical criteria of viability, not the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause in the Constitution. These factors opened the door to decades of court fights.

The Roe ruling has, in fact, been a blow to the fight for women’s rights and for the working class. Middle-class women’s groups, and others, reduced the discussion to the “abortion issue.” Unconnected to the broader questions of workers’ ability to build a family and equal rights between women and men, this ensured that a relentless assault would result.

“Women’s rights are a key part of the broader fight of the working class against the attacks of the capitalist rulers and their government,” Craine said. “Working people and our unions can lead and win millions to back the need for family planning services, including contraception, child care, fully funded maternity leave, adoption and safe and secure abortion. Reproductive rights are fundamental to winning full social, economic and political equality, to unite and strengthen the working class.”

New Missouri law threatens women’s fight for equality, family planning – The Militant