'The woman has the task of being pretty, and of bringing children into the world. That is not such a crude and old-fashioned idea as it sounds. The female bird cleans herself for her husband, and cares for the eggs. And in exchange, the male bird takes care of bringing home dinner. He also stands watch and fights away all enemies.'- Joseph Goebbels
Some men just TALK about outlawing abortion... He DID it!
If there is one man in history who can be credited with launching the compulsory childbearing movement, it is Adolf Hitler. Hitler's 'right to life' accomplishments after coming to power are summarized by one historian:
"On May 26, 1933, two pieces of penal legislation . . . prohibit[ed] the availability of abortion facilities and services. More important was the stricter handling of the old antiabortion law, resulting in a 65 percent increase in yearly conviction between 1932 and 1938, when their number reached almost 7,000. From 1935 on, doctors and midwives were obliged to notify the regional State Health Office of every miscarriage. Women's names and addresses were then handed over to the police, who investigated the cases suspected of actually being abortions. In 1936 Heinrich Himmler, head of all police forces and the SS, established the Reich's Central Agency for the Struggle Against Homosexuality and Abortion, and in 1943, after three years of preparation by the Ministries of the Interior and of Justice, the law entitled Protection of Marriage, Family, Motherhood called for the death penalty in 'extreme cases'."
Today's anti-abortionists, who bomb women's clinics, murder doctors, harass women seeking abortions, preach a traditional male-dominated family, and espouse the subordination of women to the state and church as 'breeders,' can certainly identify with a record like that!
Like their storm-trooper predecessors, they delight in inflicting cruelty on women. Women who are already having to deal with unwanted pregnancies are screamed at, have pictures of aborted fetuses pushed in their faces, and are told that they simply must carry the fetus to term - in order to suffer the further pain of giving up an actual child for adoption. Sweet people, these 'right to lifers'!
And like their Nazi forebears, many of today's anti-abortionists are quite willing to accept abortion when the pregnancy is the result of 'race mixing.' When asked about the case of the white woman allegedly raped by the Black paroled convict Willie Horton, former Vice President Dan Quayle quickly allowed that she should get a 'd&c' (a fancy word for an abortion)! These are the same kind of reactionary politicians who have 'no problem' with the sterilization of minority women.
Outlawing Abortion Was, and Is, a Nazi Program!
There is more at stake here than a group of religious fanatics trying to impose their views on everyone else. The issue of abortion is the doorway through which many people are brought to the broader reactionary agenda of restoring America's 'glory' as the undisputed imperial power in the world and upholding conservative domination at home. Maintaining the 'sanctity of motherhood,' keeping women at home and subservient to the father and the state, is part and parcel of this. 'Right to Life' means Father Right - and Fatherland uber alles!
The so-called 'right to life' movement also serves to train and organize proto-fascist 'popular action' forces. No matter how much they pose as decent and caring (some even try to disguise them- selves as a civil rights movement!) what they are selling is pure poison.
As the 1987 Refuse & Resist statement said: 'To the Reaganites, racists, misogynists, televangelists, would-be Rambos, war planners, and America-firsters, we say the future is not yours.'
Take a stand today. Uphold women's right to abortion!
Women Are Not Breeders!
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