Why Does the AFL-CIO Refuse to Mention
The Subject of Abortion to Its Members?

While the AFL-CIO web site has posted an unusual amount of daily information about the proposed health-care insurance bill, it has conspicuously avoided mentioning even the. word “abortion.”

Nothing about the issue of abortion has appeared on the AFL-CIO web sites during the past year. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka did not mention it, when he praised the Democrats for being “united and serious about solving the health problems that torment working families daily.” Actually, there is a division among Democrats on several health-care provisions in the Senate bill, including abortion.

It is hard to understand why the AFL-CIO has banned any official statement or even mention of abortion, since the labor federation has about five million women members, who must have some concern about what Congress and the political parties are doing about the abortion issue. A significant majority of working women feel that the decision to end an unwanted pregnancy should be left to the woman and her doctor and not to the government, under a law enacted by mostly white males.

One of the reasons cited for the AFL-CIO’s silence on abortion is that it is “controversial,” and that it would generate divisions of opinion at a time when labor needs to be unified. But how could ignoring abortion, and other controversial issues like immigration, promote labor unity? The AFL-CIO ban is denying important information to millions of their women members, who, whatever their position on abortion, are entitled to be kept informed about the latest developments in Congress.

Some labor leaders say that decisions about abortion are personal and should not be the concern of the AFL-CIO or its affiliates. That view ignores the fact that Republicans in Congress and corporate-subsidized right-wing groups are hoping to undermine and then eliminate the Supreme Court 1973 decision in the Roe v. Wade case that, for the first time, made it legal for women to have an abortion in any of the 50 states.

The murder of Dr. George Tiller, whose Wichita, Kansas women’s clinic performed abortions, revealed how far the anti-abortionist extremists will go to deny women the right to make decisions about their own bodies.

AFL-CIO Leaders Must not Remain Silent on Abortion Issues

There is an old Roman proverb which, when translated, says: “When they are silent, they still speak. To the best of my knowledge, President Trumka has never taken a public position on abortion. His current silence on a feature in the health reform bill, that would prevent the use of federal subsidies to pay for insurance that covers abortions, should be of concern to working women, especially low-wage workers, who may, for a variety of reasons, need an abortion.

AFL-CIO president, Trumka must clear up the uncertainty as to where he stands on Roe v. Wade, and that he will actively oppose any attempt to deny women the legal right to an abortion. The eight women leaders on the AFL-CIO Executive Council should also make their positions clear.

Finally, the web sites of the AFL-CIO and its affiliated international unions should keep their members informed about news that affect the status of abortion in our country. Whatever happens, hundreds of thousands of women will be in predicaments where they will be compelled to end unwanted pregnancies. We can predict that no anti-abortion movement will ever change that,

An informed membership is the best, perhaps the only way, to build a bigger and stronger labor movement.—Harry Kelber

LaborTalk (16) will be posted Thanksgiving Day, November 26. 2009.