Tory politician, potential new Tory party leader, and arch-reactionary Jacob Rees-Mogg is opposed to abortion under all circumstances and with no exceptions.
It’s mind-blowing that, almost 100 years after the USSR became the first country in the world to fully legalize abortion in 1920, this is still a topic at the forefront of political debate.
And it’s not just here in Britain that barbarous relics like Rees-Mogg exist. In January this year, a picture of Trump’s administration, re-imposing the global “gag rule”, went viral. This rule means that any overseas organisation would have all US funding removed if they so much as mentioned the word abortion. In doing so, Trump removed the right of a doctor to talk honestly to a patient in need.
Abortion should be free and legal in any nation, for any reason, for anyone. It’s a basic democratic right. Forcing someone to go through nine months of pregnancy against their will is sadistic and cruel, something the capitalist system is neither uncomfortable nor unfamiliar with.
In any case, limiting or banning abortion simply doesn’t work. In countries where abortion is illegal, more abortions take place. Free and non-judgmental access is more likely to reduce abortions than banning them. We should be funding more healthcare and education, not less.
Why is abortion still a topic of debate? Because some of the most backward, reactionary, disgusting members of the ruling class still see an opportunity to divide the working class amongst itself using the hypocrisy of “traditional” or religious values.
Rees Mogg is the epitome of such hypocrisy. He said recently that “life is sacrosanct, and begins at conception…and abortion is morally indefensible”. So how does our arch-defender of all human life, from fetus to old age, feel about war? Presumably, he absolutely hates it.
Strange, then, that he has consistently voted in Parliament for use of UK military forces in combat operations overseas. He voted to support the continued deployment of UK armed forces in Afghanistan. He has also voted consistently to replace Trident with a new nuclear weaponry system and against an investigation into the Iraq War in 2016.
Next time you come across an anti-abortion campaigner, ask if they extend their ‘pro-life’ stance to Iraqis, Afghans, or anyone else on the wrong side of imperialist weaponry.
We mustn’t let these reactionary hypocrites divide us by pretending to represent a challenge to the establishment. From Trump to Rees-Mogg their agendas are all the same – defend the capitalist system, its exploitation and oppression. If we unite as the working class, then we can beat the rich and powerful with a genuinely anti-establishment alternative. We can stop them exploiting and oppressing us. We can finally take control of our own bodies, our own lives and our own destinies.
by Sarah Taylor (Manchester Marxists) and Daniel Morley (Hackney Momentum)
