Trump/Pence Escalates War on Women, Imposes Domestic Gag Order Against Abortion

by Sunsara Taylor

May 21, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

The Trump/Pence regime has announced a new Domestic Gag Rule that will force healthcare providers into a lethal and immoral choice: Join a theocratic conspiracy to force women to bear children against their will or be forced to deny life-saving and life-enhancing services to these same women for lack of funding.

Even for a regime that rode a wave of misogyny to the White House, this is a vicious new low.

This new Domestic Gag Rule will deny funding to any healthcare provider that even discusses with a patient where they can find an abortion from an unaffiliated provider. If a clinic refuses to deny women this information, they will be starved of funds to provide essential healthcare like breast cancer screenings, contraception care, and screenings for sexually transmitted infections.

To be clear: Having a child—if a person wants a child and is in a position to care for one—can be a beautiful thing. But being forced to have a child against one’s will is a form of female enslavement. It forecloses women’s dreams, drives women into poverty, and traps many into abusive relationships. This all-around subjugation of women is exactly what the Christian fascists who make up a driving force in the Trump/Pence regime are after. Already, millions of women—especially Black, immigrant, poor and/or young women—do not have meaningful access to abortion and, increasingly, to birth control. Seven states have only one abortion clinic. Anti-abortion fanatics have carried out hundreds of acts of extreme violence—including murder, kidnappings, arson, clinic bombings, and more. This new law will now affect approximately 4,000 clinics, serving about 4 million women.

Reagan was the first to implement this Gag Order that Trump is now making law. But while every Republican administration has imposed this Gag Order internationally (and every Democratic administration has temporarily lifted it), the Republicans never felt they could fully implement it domestically (in the U.S.), so they never really tried. With Trump/Pence in power, their calculation has changed. Now, they are going in for the kill.

This regime is deadly serious about criminalizing all abortions for all women in all circumstances—denying women’s humanity and reducing them to incubators.

The Democratic Party’s Collaborationist “Resistance”

What did the Democratic Party—the so-called #Resistance—do in response to this vicious assault on half of humanity? They issued two mealy mouthed letters that accept the misogynist prejudices that underlie these policies. Rather than declaring that women are full human beings who must have the right to decide for themselves when and whether to bear children, the Democrats point out that “every dollar invested in Title X saves more than seven dollars in Medicaid-related costs.” (Title X is a federal program targeted by the Domestic Gag Rule that provides birth control and reproductive care for four million people.) Rather than criticize the outrageous fact that government funds were already being denied for abortion and that this has caused the deaths of poor women, they note that “Title X program has never funded abortion services” to suggest that cutting these funds won't reduce abortions anyhow.

And who did the Democrats address these collaborationist letters to? They wrote to Alex Azar, Trump’s appointee to head Health and Human Services. Appealing to Azar—who has defended the “right” of insurers to deny birth control coverage and pledged to protect the “unborn”—for redress in this matter is like appealing to the notorious racist and segregationist Bull Connor for help against the Klan!

Patriarchy—Woven into This System, on Hyper-Drive Under Trump/Pence

What kind of a system do you have when one-half of those who rule it are moving aggressively to force women into truly barbaric forms of enslavement and the other half—the so-called “opposition”—only raises half-hearted objections? What kind of a system boasts that there are supposedly no more barriers to women’s achievement while elevating a boastful sexual predator to the White House?

It is the system of capitalism-imperialism. This is a system that has the oppressive control over women by men woven into its very fabric and foundation. It is a system saturated with rape and porn culture, from the campuses and corporate board rooms to the prisons and fields. It is a system whose workings internationally have fueled a global sex-slave trade that devours millions of young women every year. It is a system where a handful of capitalists grow fat through the desperate toil of women and girls in sweatshop deathtraps around the world.

But that is not all, this is a system that—owing to deep structural dynamics laid bare in a powerful talk given by Bob Avakian late last year—has brought to the fore a fascist regime in Trump/Pence. In addition to slamming women violently backwards, this fascism includes the genocidal ethnic cleansing of immigrants, the banning of Muslims, the destruction of science, new threats of war, the ripping up of the rule of law, and the acceleration of environmental destruction.

Cast Off Illusions—Prepare for Struggle

It is long past time that this mountain of abuse and utter dehumanization of women be abolished forever—it is not only utterly intolerable, it is utterly unnecessary. But ending all this will take an actual revolution. Now is the time to be actively fighting for and preparing for this revolution (see HOW WE CAN WIN—How We Can Really Make Revolution). This includes right now fighting to bring together and unite with many different kinds of people from diverse political perspectives to drive out the Trump/Pence Regime.

It’s time to cast off illusions and prepare for struggle.

Fetuses are NOT babies. Abortion is NOT murder. Women are NOT incubators!

In the Name of Humanity, We REFUSE to Accept a Fascist America!

This Nightmare Must End: The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go!

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