Women's right to control their own bodies.

The (mainly male) outfits that campaign against the right of women  to control their own bodies, try to portray themselves as being "pro life". Leaving aside that they ignore the hundreds of millions who are starving to death under capitalism these people also ignore the suffering their policies cause to women who become pregnant and for whatever reason feel they cannot have a baby.

The organizers of this blog are for a women's right to choose. This means the right to have a baby as well as the right not to have a baby. The right to have a baby means a living standard and access to health care and childcare which would make having a baby the joy it should be. The right to have a baby, the possibility of all women having a baby if they so choose, means changing society from where the rich control the wealth and the sexist male capitalist culture rules.

While standing for a woman's right to have a baby we have to also stand unconditionally for the right of women not to have a baby and for women alone to make this decision. We cannot deviate one iota from this, we cannot allow any backtracking from this. Women have the right to control their own bodies and decide whether to have a baby or not.

What can happen when this right is not upheld has been see in Mexico recently. This is a normal scene in that Catholic Church dominated society. A young teenage girl came into a hospital in the state of Guanajuato. She was bleeding. But before anyone could treat her, the state authorities had to be called. Doctors believed she had had an illegal abortion. First a man from the prosecutors office arrived and asked her about her sexual history. Only then was she treated. After that and still groggy from the anesthesia another investigator arrived and took a statement from her. Two months later the investigation is still open, the cops are trying to decide whether to charge the young woman and the person they think helped her have her abortion. This is vicious cruel treatment.

Many women in Mexico are sentenced to up to 25 and 30 years jail when suspected and "convicted" of having an abortion. Many of these have been freed after it was found they had been forced to sign so called confessions. Some have been charged and convicted of "murder. This savage policy is driving many women away from health clinics and hospitals when they need help. As Nadine Goodman who runs a school for midwives says "The fear of being investigated means even more women who want to be pregnant but have complications or lose the baby have to think twice about going to a hospital."

We hear about the drug war in Mexico. But there is another war going on there. A war against women. It is a backlash against the decision by Mexico City three years ago to permit legal abortion to any women in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Pedro Salazar, a legal scholar at the Institute of Legal Research of the national Autonomous University of Mexico explains: "This is a well coordinated initiative. It's not a spontaneous decision." This war against womens rights aims to prevent other states from following Mexico City's lead and legalizing abortion. There is also a move against the pill and especially the morning after pill. We can be sure the dirty fingers of the American extreme right and the catholic Church at the center of this attack on women.

The movement for womens rights in the US and internationally must link up with and help their sisters in Mexico. Working people in the US and internationally must not be fooled by the emotive lying propaganda of the so called pro life movement. What is happening in Mexico gives a glimpse of what would happen if the bigots and undemocratic forces of the anti-womens rights movement got into power. We have to stand unconditionally for a womans right to choose not to have a baby or to have a baby.

Sean