WOMEN, wake up! The feminist movement of the 1970s saw great gains in the empowerment of "the weaker sex," but failure to maintain sustained action has left you vulnerable, an easy target for the conservative administration that has taken control of the nation. Your civil liberties are being threatened and slowly stripped away while you sit complacently on your laurels with the belief that the 1973 Roe decision is set in stone and cannot be taken away. Think again ladies, for time does not always mean progress. For over 30 years we have taken our rights for granted while a reactionary front bent on reversing the clock has been hard at work trying to overturn the ruling made by the courts that fateful day. On April 1, they finally got one foot in the door, with the Senate's 61-38 passage of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which would give separate legal status to a fertilized egg, embryo or fetus even if the woman does not know she is pregnant. What does this mean? Good news for Bush during the election year, and bad news for women everywhere.
The government says the act (which declares that it is a separate federal crime to harm a pregnant woman's fetus) has nothing to do with abortion. Admittedly, Bush refrained from mentioning the word when he signed the bill into law, but he did say, "We reaffirm that the United States of America is building a culture of life." What does this mean exactly, a culture of life? It is impossible to claim that this is a neutral bill when The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) was consulted in the drafting of the legislation and led the coalition that worked for its enactment. The NRLC's mission statement says that its ultimate goal is to "restore legal protection to innocent human life," and it was founded in 1973 as a direct response to the Roe decision.
Although the law is commonly known as "Laci and Conner's Law," it really has nothing to do with the Peterson case, except that by tying the two together, pro-lifers are using a horrible tragedy for their own political gains. Since the bill only applies to federal crimes of an extremely narrow scope (the Peterson suit not being one of those), the linking of the act to the case seems to me only a front to cover up the real intent of the legislation, which is to whittle away at women's reproductive rights.
I am aware of the fact that when it comes to the abortion issue, pro-lifers and pro-choicers are not even speaking the same language. Either one believes that life begins at conception, or one doesn't. It's a fundamental difference of opinion that will never be resolved. What I can say, however (in terms that everyone should understand), is that the passage of this bill is a blatant piece of pro-life, pro-fundamentalist Christian propaganda that makes me question the integrity of the government when it says that it is a secular institution representing the interests of the people. But who exactly constitutes the so called "people?" The ones making all the decisions appear to be wealthy white males around age 50 -- not a very large percentage of the population last time I checked. The voices of many are not being heard here, especially those of the fairer sex.
Any step toward recognizing full legal rights for a human fetus, embryo or zygote constitutes a crucial erosion of the foundation of abortion rights: that a woman has the right to make decisions concerning her own body. "This bill is a wolf in sheep's clothing," said Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. It's "an assault on women's autonomy and their right to decide," he said during a hearing. Indeed, by giving separate status to the fetus, one runs the risk of denying the mother her own right to assert her best interests, stripping her of self-autonomy and control. The basis for overturning Roe v. Wade is being laid as we speak. All Bush needs now is for a seat to open on the Supreme Court, so that he can get another one of his cronies on the bench to discuss the issue with a conservative court. A bill like this one should not go down without a fight. We have been put on the defensive now, but, as always, there is hope.
Megan Densky is a member of VOX: Voices for Planned Parenthood.
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