EMERGENCY: ABORTION EFFECTIVELY OUTLAWED IN TEXAS

Last week the Supreme Court allowed a Texas law to effectively outlaw abortion. Sunsara Taylor’s article, published the night this went down and now updated, gets into the basics of this. The stakes of this and how people respond to this—how they are led to understand why this happened, where humanity’s interests lie, and what must be done about it—will have everything to do with what kind of future women, and all people, will have. As Bob Avakian has raised—“Radical Change Is Coming: Will It Be Emancipating, or Enslaving—Revolutionary, or Reactionary.”

For this reason, we are running a special section this week on the implications of this attack. We include:

• THIS IS A RARE TIME WHEN REVOLUTION BECOMES POSSIBLE—WHY THAT IS SO, AND HOW TO SEIZE ON THIS RARE OPPORTUNITY. This article, by Bob Avakian, sets the context for understanding and acting upon this attack. 

• “ALERT! September 1st: Forced Motherhood and Fascist Vigilantism Become Law in Texas.” The article by Sunsara Taylor, written last week, on the decision itself.
• A further article by Sunsara Taylor, “In the Face of the Greatest Assault on Abortion in Nearly 50 Years: Focusing on “Self-Managed Abortion" Is a Recipe for Catastrophe” (and one coming soon by Toni Redtree) that takes on false pathways being put forward from among those who oppose the attack on how we should view and deal with this attack

Abortion rights protest, September 1, Austin, Texas. Photo: AP

• Excerpts from the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, authored by Bob Avakian, outlining the legal stance and orientation of the state power that the revolution aims to bring into being on this question, and the emancipation of women overall.
• We are also providing a link to a column by Tony Norman that appeared in the Pittsburg Post-Gazette that draws the links between this vicious new law and the Fugitive Slave Act that led up to the Civil War that finally ended slavery in the U.S. We think that readers will find the insights of this writer to be of value.
• From 1980s to the present, revolutionary leader Bob Avakian (BA) has been pointing to the deadly seriousness of the Christian fascist attacks on women’s right to abortion (as well as birth control)—and deepening scientific analysis of what is giving rise to this, its implications, and what is needed to fight in the interests of humanity. We have gathered several key quotes from BA over the years around this, and will be posting further quotes from BA in the coming days.

• The revcoms have taken this question to masses of people and drawn links to the need to get organized NOW for a real revolution. We have a report from Revcoms going out to students at a southern California campus, and will have other reports and pictures soon.

Harvard Square, Boston, September 4.

Berkeley, California, September 5.

In reading over this section, keep in mind the following from THIS IS A RARE TIME WHEN REVOLUTION BECOMES POSSIBLE—WHY THAT IS SO, AND HOW TO SEIZE ON THIS RARE OPPORTUNITY:

This rare situation, with the deepening and sharpening conflicts among the ruling powers, and in the society overall, provides a stronger basis and greater openings to break the hold of this system over masses of people.

It is extremely important to deeply understand this:

As this situation develops, and the ruling class is more and more unable to rule in the old way, society and daily life for masses of people, from different parts of society, can become increasingly unsettled and chaotic, with frequent “disruptions” of the “normal” way things have been.

And as “the normal way” society has been ruled is failing to hold things together—and society is increasingly being ripped apart—this can shake people’s belief that “the way things have always been” is the only way things can be. It can make people more open to questioning—in a real sense it can force people to question—the way things have been, and whether they have to stay that way. And this is all the more likely to happen if the revolutionary forces are out among the people shining a light on the deeper reality of what is happening, and why, and bringing out that there IS an alternative to living this way.

Austin, Texas, September 1. Photo: AP

Berkeley, California, September 5.