{"id":4234,"date":"2021-09-30T07:00:55","date_gmt":"2021-09-30T11:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tempestmag.org\/v01_2020\/staging\/?p=4234"},"modified":"2022-05-03T12:17:02","modified_gmt":"2022-05-03T16:17:02","slug":"being-a-socialist-means-being-pro-abortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/2021\/09\/being-a-socialist-means-being-pro-abortion\/","title":{"rendered":"Being a socialist means being pro-abortion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thanks to Texas\u2019 recent abortion ban<\/a>, the nationwide attack on abortion is now receiving more attention than it has since the swath of attempted bans in the spring of 2019. But the movement is still small, fractured, and hamstrung by politics that have pulled many to the right and out of the streets. Access to abortion is one of the most basic requirements for the type of society that socialists fight for: free of gendered and racial oppression and free of the exploitation of the working class. We must do everything in our power to defend abortion unapologetically, with no restrictions or concessions, starting by joining the upcoming marches on October 2<\/a> ahead of the reconvening of the Supreme Court on October 4.<\/em><\/p>\n

The movement has historically shied away from or denounced a \u201cpro-abortion\u201d position, but as Moira Geary<\/strong> argues below, these politics are essential to winning the fight and securing reproductive freedom for all.<\/em><\/p>\n

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L<\/span>ast month, I gave birth to my first child. While abortion was the last thing on my mind as I was trying to conceive, I thought more and more about it throughout my pregnancy because of what my experience taught me: our society does not care about pregnant people and values our fetuses above our own lives. Before I knew I was pregnant, I was scheduled for an exercise stress test to check on a potential heart issue. By the time the appointment came around, I was seven weeks pregnant. Although exercise is safe during pregnancy, and I had cleared this test with my primary doctor and notified the lab of my pregnancy, I showed up to my appointment to find that it had been canceled by the cardiologist without my knowledge. The manager of the lab explained that because I was pregnant, they were \u201cnot comfortable\u201d putting me on a treadmill. Asked what was going to be done about my potential heart problem, the cardiologist told me I could \u201cmake an appointment if I have any further issues.\u201d I, an adult human being, was denied care on the basis that someone felt, despite any evidence, that running on a treadmill might be harmful to my seven-week embryo.<\/p>\n

Most people are familiar with the dietary and lifestyle restrictions recommended during pregnancy: don\u2019t drink coffee or alcohol, don\u2019t eat deli meat, don\u2019t take x, y, or z medication, and on and on. I was very cautious during my pregnancy and attempted to do and consume only things that were safe for the development of my future baby until I realized that there was very little information beyond the standard \u201cdon\u2019ts\u201d (I first encountered this trying to determine which herbal teas were safe to drink). What\u2019s more surprising, there is little evidence<\/span><\/a> backing up even the basic prohibitions on alcohol and caffeine.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is largely because research studies on the efficacy and safety of substances and procedures during pregnancy are severely lacking compared to studies on non-pregnant people. Researchers and drug manufacturers often give the justification that because pregnant people and fetuses are uniquely vulnerable, it is more dangerous to perform studies on them. However, as a doctor with the UCSF ASPIRE study<\/span><\/a> explained in a recent webinar, the lack of data resulting from this patronizing exclusion of pregnant people is much more harmful than the safety data we would have if the research had been done. It means that pregnant people are left to make health decisions without sufficient evidence, and are often advised to abstain from interventions that could improve their <\/span>own<\/span><\/i> health because there is no data proving that it is safe for the <\/span>fetus<\/span><\/i>. In reality, the hesitancy to perform research studies on pregnant people has less to do with concern for their vulnerability and more to do with resources: including pregnant people in trials requires extra precautions and monitoring, and researchers must follow the pregnancy to its end as well as any children born for potential long-term effects. It means more work and more expenses, and the medical establishment would rather cheaply and quickly deliver new products and protocols than invest in equitable health outcomes for pregnant people.<\/span><\/p>\n

An example with which anyone who has been pregnant in the past year is painfully familiar was the exclusion<\/span><\/a> of pregnant people from COVID-19 vaccine trials. All three major vaccine manufacturers in the U.S. refused to enroll pregnant people, and people who became pregnant after signing up were kicked out of the studies. So, when the results came out promising that the vaccines were safe and effective for the general public, pregnant people\u2014<\/span>who are at <\/span><\/i>higher risk for contracting COVID-19<\/span><\/i><\/a> and for severe illness and death from the disease<\/span><\/i>\u2014had no data to tell them if the vaccine was safe for them or their fetuses. Although the practice was overturned after a major outcry, many pregnant frontline healthcare workers were <\/span>initially denied the vaccine<\/span><\/a>. Guided by medical experts\u2019 predictions and by the certain danger of COVID-19 infection, I and many other pregnant people chose to get the vaccine anyway. However, many other pregnant people chose not to be vaccinated out of concern for their or their fetus\u2019s health, and there is currently a crisis of <\/span>maternal death<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>stillbirth<\/span><\/a> for the unvaccinated. The deaths of these pregnant people, which continue to happen, can be directly attributed to vaccine manufacturers’ disregard for their lives.<\/span><\/p>\n