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Militant/Robbie Kopec
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| Joel Britton (right, with cap), SWP candidate for San Francisco Board of Education, and Lea Sherman, SWP candidate for U.S. Senate from California, campaign at August 12 rally against Israeli invasion of Lebanon. |
The “Parents’ Right to Know and Child Protection Initiative,” or Proposition 85, will appear on the November 7 ballot here. If passed it would amend the state constitution to require doctors to notify the parents of anyone under the age of 18 who seeks an abortion, and then wait 48 hours before performing the procedure.
At the street fair in San Diego, Heather Ford and Liz Landau, both volunteers with Planned Parenthood, who were wearing “Vote No on Prop 85” buttons, welcomed the socialist candidate’s remarks on that subject. “We agree this proposition isn’t just targeting minor women, but women as a whole,” Ford said.
At least 35 states now enforce parental consent and notification laws limiting access to abortion for young women. Other laws requiring waiting periods, “counseling,” and cutting state funding have also made it harder over the last three decades for women, especially working-class and farm women, throughout the United States to receive safe, legal, and affordable abortions.
“No on 85—For Real Teen Safety” is the theme of the campaign against parental notification organized by a coalition that includes Planned Parenthood, the National Organization for Women, League of Women Voters, and the California Physicians Alliance. Some union bodies, including the California Nurses Association and California Labor Federation have gone on record opposing the proposition. Campaigning against the proposition and other attacks on reproductive rights was a focus of discussion at two national women’s conferences that took place here in mid-September—the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum and SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective.
“Unlike the candidates of the capitalist parties our campaign explains that a woman’s right to choose was won and can be defended only by mobilizing in the streets,” Lea Sherman, the Socialist Workers Party candidate for U.S. Senate in California, said in an interview. “This is an issue that the labor movement should champion,” she explained.
Sherman said the socialist candidates put “the union question” at the center of their platform. “We see the fight to organize and mobilize union power to resist the bosses’ attacks as one of the most immediate challenges facing working people,” she said.
The socialist campaign also stands for “legalization for all immigrants now, without conditions,” Sherman said, describing how socialist candidates have been actively building and participating in this fight. Sherman described how over the past year millions of workers have taken the initiative and set a powerful example for all of labor through this struggle.
—NAOMI CRAINE AND DAVID ARGÜELLO