Although the war on women rages on across the country, women did achieve a monumental victory in Massachusetts when the Supreme Judicial Court overturned the manslaughter conviction of a woman in the state, and in doing so reaffirmed the rights and personhood of pregnant women.
In 2007, Allissa Pugh unexpectedly went into labor at home. Thinking she was only three months pregnant and miscarrying, she found herself delivering a full-term fetus alone in her bathroom. When she realized she was having a breech birth, a potentially life-threatening complication where the fetus delivers feet first, she reached in and pulled the fetus out, to find it blue and lifeless. Pugh tried to resuscitate the baby, but after realizing it was stillborn, she disposed of the body herself.
Pugh was subsequently charged with involuntary manslaughter, with the judge ruling that because she failed to summon medical help when she went into labor she was responsible for the death of the baby, despite a failure to prove that the baby was born alive or that medical intervention would have produced a different outcome.
In overturning the conviction during appeal, the Supreme Judicial Court not only made clear that there was no evidence that Pugh was responsible for the death of her baby, but that in convicting Pugh the courts had set a very dangerous and unacceptable precedent regarding the rights of pregnant women to make decisions for themselves. The Supreme Judicial Court stated that the trial court ruling would “result in the effective criminalization of medically unassisted childbirth, such as unattended births or home births with a lay midwife.”
Additionally, the court addressed the ways in which the ruling could have undermined due process: “Drawing the line between what is lawful and what is criminal conduct on the part of pregnant women and women in labor would be left to individual law enforcement officials and judges. … It is not difficult to foresee a patchwork of unpredictable and conflicting prosecutorial and judicial actions. …”
Female elected officials silenced for speaking out in Michigan
The continuing war on women reached an absurd new low June 14 when the Michigan House of Representatives banned State Representative Lisa Brown and her colleague Rep. Barb Byrum for using the word “vagina” on the house floor while discussing an extremely restrictive piece of anti-choice legislation. Rep. Brown’s exact words were “Finally Mr. Speaker, I’m flattered that you’re all so interested in my vagina, but ‘no’ means ‘no’.”
Rep. Mike Callton defended the punishment, saying: “It was so offensive, I don’t even want to say it in front of women. I would not say that in mixed company.” The house claimed disingenuously that the portion that caused the problem was not the word “vagina” but the phrase “‘no’ means ‘no’” because of its association with rape, in an attempt to backpedal as the uproar across the country began. But this explanation only served to indicate just how out of touch these right-wing male legislators are when it comes to the personhood of women; they fail to realize that forcing a woman to continue an unwanted pregnancy or endure unnecessary medical procedures to obtain an abortion is no less an act of coercion than rape is.
In an act of justified and creative defiance, Brown and thousands of others gathered on the Capitol steps a few days later, where Brown performed a portion of the play “The Vagina Monologues,” by Eve Ensler.
Kansas budget attacks women, children
In May of this year, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback signed into law a tax plan that will create a budget deficit in the state of more than $2.5 billion. The measure would reduce the income tax rates to 4.9 percent and 3 percent, down from rates of 3.5 percent, 6.25 percent, and 6.45 percent, and do away with income taxes for the owners of 191,000 businesses.
The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy has reported that the law will cause taxes to increase for just one group—the poorest 20 percent of Kansans, who have an average annual income of only $11,000. Combined with the cut in the state sales tax from 6.3 percent to 5.7 percent, the state can expect revenue from taxes to decline by more than $4.5 billion over the next six years.
Because the state constitution includes a balanced budget amendment, Kansas will have to institute massive spending cuts to make up for the deficit, and there is little doubt about from where those cuts would come: public schools, health services, social services, and other programs that affect women and children predominantly.
This isn’t the first time Brownback has made clear his commitment to undermining the health and stability of women and children. In 2011, he announced a $56.5 million transfer of general funds to balance the budget—$50 million coming from education, and $2.3 million from the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services. Adding insult to injury, in a state where 16 percent of women aged 19-64 and 38 percent of low-income adults are uninsured and spending per pupil has dropped by hundreds of dollars, millions of dollars are being raised to build Kansas’ new “Pro Life Memorial and International Life Center.” This is intended as a place for people to go to “properly grieve and memorialize the children that we’ve lost to abortion,” says Pastor Mark Holick, one of the project’s leaders.
The “memorial” is planned to be an exact replica of the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, and will include 60 crosses to memorialize the “60 million” abortions that have been performed since abortion was legalized.
Kansas is a state with some of the most restrictive anti-choice laws in the country. Women seeking abortion in Kansas can no longer claim abortion insurance coverage; doctors are protected from lawsuits if they withhold information critical to an abortion decision; and doctors are ordered to actually lie to women seeking abortion, telling them that abortion is linked with breast cancer, a scientifically proven inaccuracy.
What will it take to put a stop to these ongoing attacks on the rights of women to control our own bodies? Women won the right to abortion through mass struggle, and every victory for women, as in the recent Massachusetts Supreme Court decision, reflects the power of the women’s movement.
However, we cannot rely on the courts or the politicians to protect us. The gains of the past can be rolled back quickly, and even elected officials can be silenced when they speak out within the confines of the system. Ultimately we need to establish socialism, a society which puts the interests of the working class first, where our rights cannot be taken away.
