From CounterPunch
By Ron Jacobs

I rarely write about so-called women’s issues. I think this is because I don’t really feel qualified since I am not a woman. That’s the effect identity politics has had on me and much of the rest of the left( and not so left). However, this is one of those instances where what appears to be a women’s issue is actually much more than that. Much much more. I’m talking about the recent law passed by the South Dakota legislature outlawing abortions. This law, which makes all abortion illegal in the state of South Dakota, is one of the most reactionary pieces of legislation ever passed in the United States.

It seems like it came from another country–perhaps a protofascist version of Superman’s Bizarroworld. Or maybe Hitler’s Germany. You know, the place of the three K’s (that’s right KKK). Those K’s stood for Kinder, Kirche und Kuche (Children, church and kitchen)–the only three places women belonged in the mind of the Nazis.. The sad truth is it did not originate in either of these places. It’s happening here in the United States. And the opposition is quiet. Or at least it isn’t being heard.

Now, I’m no fan of abortion. Then again, I’m not a woman or a girl, so I will never get pregnant. So, I am a supporter of women’s right to choose. The way I remember the whole abortion question is that it started with a demand for free and accessible birth control to all those capable of creating a child. Somehow along the way it became a demand for abortion on demand. Ultimately, it resolved itself in the Supreme Court decision known as Roe v. Wade. Which brings us back to that recently passed law in South Dakota. Roe v. Wade is a decision that should stand. The legislators who passed the South Dakota law (and the interests they represent) have made it very clear that the primary reason they wrote and passed the law was so that it would be challenged in court. Of course, their hope is that it will end up in the Supreme Court–where it will be heard and result in the end of women’s right to choose in the United States.

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