Capitalism And the Reproductive Body
Or; Anti-Abortionism as A Tool of Capitalist Domination
The rising tide of militant anti-abortionism, which has been brought to public attention by the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett although it is necessary to understand that it is far larger than just the affairs of the US capitalist state’s puppet court, is an undeniable and dangerous trend in the social attitudes of the US. Not so long ago, when the ruling of Roe v Wade was still actually upheld in every state, it seemed as if the right to bodily autonomy and self-rule over the reproductive body was secure in this country. But now, with that right constantly challenged by both the state and the ultrareligious and fascist forces of reaction, it seems it is quickly moving towards vanishing entirely. So what, precisely, has caused this immense about-face of US society? What is behind it, what function does it serve and what do we- as Maoists and as ardent supporters of the basic human right to available abortions- do about it? The answers to these questions go well beyond the question of abortion and anti-abortionism, and to the very heart of the relationship between the capitalist social system and reproduction as a whole.
To begin with, let me clarify that this is not an article discussing whether or not abortions should be allowed. They should, and this will be taken as assumed fact for the purposes of this piece because it is the position backed by the science and by those who have properly investigated it. We Communists unequivocally uphold the right to abortions for those who want them. With that established, what is the function of the growing tide of anti-abortionism for the capitalist system? What does this do for the ruling class, and why are they supporting it through the state? To answer this, we must examine what kind of a historical context this is happening in. In the present day, the contradictions between the ruling bourgeois class and majority proletarian class are decisively sharpening and thus the dialectical conflict between the two is decisively escalating. Alienation, loss of jobs, stagnating minimum wage: all of these escalating contradictions between the working majority and the capitalist exploiters are surely leading us to a point where the only way forward will be armed proletarian revolt. The response to this threat from the bourgeoisie and the tools they use to dominate society, principally the bourgeois state, is the use of brutal fascist force to a) divide the proletariat and b) violently crush any form of proletarian uprising before it can take place by reclaiming total control over the lives of the working majority through force. In summation, the current state of the class struggle that defines history is that the ruling class are steadily losing their power over the working class, and that they are continually trying and failing to reclaim it through reactionary fascist measures.
And, it is necessary to understand, a key part of the power of the bourgeoisie over the proletariat is the control of reproduction by bourgeois social structures. The real heart of the power of capital and its owners over society is their power over the labour-power of the proletariat. It is from the labour-power of the workers, expressed in the form of productive labour, that the surplus value which makes up and empowers capital comes into being. Therefore, by controlling said labour-power through exploitative economic relations, capital has the power to continue growing itself and adding to its power and thus remain on top of the pyramid of society. But the lifespan of a worker’s labour-power is finite; as a worker ages and dies, they cease being productive and capital can no longer grow and empower itself by parasitizing them. The superstructure of capitalist society has therefore needed to adapt to the mortality of labour-power by adopting a way to steadily maintain a constant feed of new workers with new labour-power into the greedy maw of the great beast that is capital. This mechanism takes the form of the control through bourgeois social systems- law, organized religion, marriage and the family, each with its own particular role in maintaining bourgeois rule- of proletarian bodies and their capacity to produce new labour-power in the form of children, of a new young labour-force for capital to gobble up. Capitalism requires the enslavement of the reproductive body by bourgeois society in order to continue functioning.
Once we understand these two essential truths- that the power of capital and the capitalist class in the US is in danger and that the institutions of bourgeois rule are doing their best to reassert it, and that the control of the reproductive body is an essential part of how capital remains in power- we can understand the nature and function of the rising anti-abortionist trend. The various sums of capital that rule the political economy of this country, recognizing their increasingly precarious position (whether consciously or not), are throwing their weight behind reactionary anti-abortionist causes in order to grow their power over the proletariat back up by creating a sea of new exploitable labour-power. By making the practicing of the right to abortion impossible- both through legal erasure by the bourgeois state and terroristic harassment of those who seek abortions by bourgeois-backed fascist groups- the forces of reaction and the various capitalists and sums of capital that back them are moving to reclaim the power of capital over the masses by forcing the births of thousands of children who, devoid of guidance and love in life, will surely surrender their bodies and their labour-power to the tyranny of capital. In this way, the rise of anti-abortionism is fundamentally a gambit by which the bourgeois class seeks to re-establish its social control, and it must be understood and responded to as such.
So, how do we respond to this dangerous reactionary trend, now that we understand its real and very dangerous function as an attempt to reinforce bourgeois power against rising class struggle? Let us begin with the obvious: we will not fix this problem on the floor of Congress or the Supreme Court. The onslaught of anti-abortion law is only one part of this dangerous phenomenon, and even if we are rid of it there will still be the problem of fascists harassing those who seek abortions until they are so afraid they give up. This movement of reactionary domination over the human body is not a movement of peaceable electoral politics, it is a violent and militant campaign of force and intimidation. To beat it we must respond in kind, we must fight the anti-abortionists with force and vitriol and not be afraid to resort to the cracking of skulls. Any focus on the electoral side of politics, which in a bourgeois-controlled state is nothing more than smoke and mirrors, is only a distraction from this and will prevent success.
With that out of the way, how exactly do we go about this necessary forceful response to anti-abortionism? In the long term, our duty to decisively end bourgeois society’s repression of the right to bodily autonomy can only be fulfilled by the construction of a new socialist society through People’s War and then the destruction of bourgeois culture through Cultural Revolution- processes which have been elucidated elsewhere by people cleverer than I. But in the short term, we also have a duty to defend and to serve those victimized by this repression, a duty which will take a different form for each of us depending on where in society we stand and what we are capable of doing. Those of us acquainted with victims of anti-abortionism- friends and comrades in need of abortions but deprived of access to them- must do all we can to get them what they need: provide transportation, emotional support, a defender from the hordes of protestors outside the clinic, whatever is necessary. The rest of us, we must form an army of defenders around those comrades in need. Let every fascist who stands outside an abortion clinic harassing the desperate be met with a dozen Communists ready to drown him out with cries of support for the right to bodily self-determination! Let every church or organization which opposes this basic right be denounced by Communists and boycotted by the masses under communist guidance! Let us use direct action and mass work to silence those who would reinforce bourgeois rule over the reproductive body! And, of course, those among us with medical knowledge- in the unlikely event any are reading my humble writings- have a special role. Those with the knowledge to serve the need for abortions must not let the fearmongering of the state and the forces of reaction stop them from following Hippocrates’s mandate “ἐπὶ δηλήσει δὲ καὶ ἀδικίῃ εἴρξειν”- to abstain from doing harm. Be not cowed by the threat of arrest into harming people by refusing them care, serve the people and provide them with the care they need no matter the cost. That, in the end, is the guiding rule which sums up what we must do in response to anti-abortionism: SERVE THE PEOPLE. As fascists and the state seek to deprive the masses of fundamental rights, we must serve them by doing what we can to preserve those rights. In this way, we will not only do good in the world but also build up mass support for our cause and thus build a foundation for the revolution that shall ultimately and totally free the people from anti-abortionism and other manifestations of bourgeois tyranny.
