THE BOURGEOIS ATTACK ON ABORTION IN THE US:
THE ONLY DEFENSE IS WORLD REVOLUTION!

The US Supreme Court’s decision is an act of war by the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie against the entire working class, disguised under the deceitful concept of democracy. It is a reaction to the tumultuous and ever changing nature of capitalist society, riddled with the constant fear that production will grind to a halt. Veiled by the facade of “traditional family values”, its real motivation lies in the falling rate of profit and increased cost of wages caused by the labor shortage and by rising commodity prices.

The proletariat’s ability to get abortions comes under fire when capitalism enters its moribund and crisis-ridden phase. We stand in the midst of a prolonged crisis of overproduction that has been ongoing since 2008. The entire system of world capitalism is artificially propped up by the central banks. World capitalism is hurtling us towards collapse and a third world war. And what will the bourgeoisie need then if not more flesh to sacrifice before the altar of profit?

To the capitalist class, the workers are nothing but a supply of labor power, to be exploited for as much profit as possible. The whole question of birth control is reduced to the inhuman and despotic calculations of supply and demand!

And this is what they call “freedom”! It is their class freedom, the democratic dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. It is their freedom to exploit and destroy, to break down the proletariat by overwork and then send them to the slaughter.

Communists have always supported abortion. The Paris Commune of 1871, the first victory of the world proletariat, guaranteed access to abortion along with other sexual and reproductive rights. The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 gave Russia the freest system of abortion access in history, which the Communist International promised to give to the whole world. Abortion was freely available in healthcare settings for all Soviet citizens from 1920 to 1936. In that year, the tide of Stalinist counter-revolution, which killed the world revolution and brought capitalism back to Russian soil, reinstituted the ban on abortion along with other restrictions on sexual freedom dating to the tsarist period. The reason was a brutal program of unlimited capital accumulation (yet today’s Stalinists, still pretending to be communists, cry crocodile tears over restrictions on abortion!).

Compare the status of abortion in the Paris Commune and Bolshevik Russia to the bourgeois dictatorship that now prevails in every corner of the globe: abortion access is tenuous; it is often restricted to the wealthy if not banned altogether; where abortion is available there is ignorance and stigma surrounding it. This is the nature of abortion under the bourgeois regime, which treats reproductive freedom as only a means to the ultimate end of higher profits!

For the bourgeois opposition to abortion, the aim is clear. Forced pregnancy will further immiserate the proletariat, promote gender inequality, and ensure a larger supply of young workers to be exploited in the future. And the conservatives call this the “right to life”!

For the faction of the bourgeoisie that “supports” abortion, this “freedom” is only a means to exploit a greater part of the proletariat, to plunge working women more completely into the hell of the workplace.

For the liberals and the petty-bourgeois left, the specter of abortion restrictions is also an effective tool to fool the proletariat into participating in their democratic illusions. The Supreme Court’s decision shows how little their promises have meant in practice. We see that the entire bourgeois abortion scheme serves to keep the proletariat in chains, making it entirely dependent on the will of the propertied class.

Those who have sought to secure political rights within the existing bourgeois regime through voting, etc. – a program characteristic of the liberal and faux-socialist activism that has prevailed since Roe v. Wade – could not stop today’s decision, and will never be able to protect the ability for workers to get abortions in the future. Communists recognize that the concept of human rights is a sham perpetuated by the bourgeoisie to subordinate the workers under the yoke of national unity. It is pointless to ask for favors from a State which only exists to oppress us!

Now is the time for militant class action, not voting or petitions. Fight for the unity of action of the working class against the capitalist order! Throw out the collaborationist union bureaucracies which hold you back! Defend your class interests through uncompromising class struggle!

Only communism can guarantee reproductive and sexual freedom!
Long live the international proletarian revolution!