What just happened in Michigan should be a message that anti-labor and anti-abortion legislation are part of the same right-wing agenda. So progressives should respond likewise—as part of the same agenda.
For far too long, the supporters of labor have ignored reproductive rights. Consider what was wrong with this picture: On February 26, 2011, there were two demonstrations in New York City, carefully organized so as to be near each other --one in City Hall Park, the other in Foley Square--and to fit together, one at 11 a. m. and the other at 1 p.m. The first was called by labor unions and other progressive organizations to support the struggle against Wisconsin governor Scott Walker’s attack on public unions; the second supported Planned Parenthood against the Republican-controlled House’s effort to defund it. At the Planned Parenthood event, many speakers condemned tax breaks for the rich, corporate welfare, the elimination of social and public services, the closing of public schools, and union-busting. At the union demonstration, although many of the demonstrators were Hispanic and black women, not one speaker mentioned the attacks on Planned Parenthood.
That was foolish, because the “war on women” is not just targeting women, any more than the war on labor is targeting only men. All middle- and working-class people, and especially the poor, benefit from a strong labor movement –it’s our best bulwark against a race to the wage bottom. In parallel, being able to control how many children to have and when to have them is something men as well as women need.
As to abortion, of course contraception is better. But accidents happen; contraception is not 100 percent flawless. And sex is an unruly force. We know from study after study that abstinence doesn’t work. Just ask your favorite high school student. One might ask, aren’t those who don’t use contraceptives carefully precisely those least well prepared to be parents at the time? Men are no more interested than women in having unwanted children they’re financially responsible for. There was an anti-abortion sign on the NYC subways that read, “Abortion changes your life forever.” Below it someone scrawled, “But not as much as having a baby.”
Making it harder to get abortions is also class legislation. The prosperous will be able to get safe abortions; what’s at issue is access for the poor, the young, the sexually innocent, the victims of assault.
Access to birth control is a requirement of modern citizenship, assuming that true citizenship means not only a set of documents but also the ability to participate in democracy, to defend and expand it. Doing that requires not having to spend 16 hours a day working two jobs to keep oneself and one’s family afloat. It means being able to raise children well, through having the leisure to spend with them and being confident that they will be safe, well nourished, and well educated. While we work toward that end, we need to be able to make choices about reproduction and to have personal privacy in doing it.
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