Stoller:
Marx and Engels---to my knowledge---did not address this issue directly. Engels' Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State makes very clear his belief that a woman's body is HERS, and the state should keep its hands off.
: That's true so far as it goes, but it only sees one side of the issue. As you have so well pointed out, "Freedom TO or freedom FROM?" Does the mother's freedom TO do as she wishes with her body obviate the freedom of the fetus FROM arbitrary death. At what point does the fetus begin to have rights, and freedoms, that we ought to consider?
In my opinion, which I believe is consistent with a revolutionary Marxist perspective, a woman's right to choose is paramount, outweighing the 'freedom' of the child to be born into a family that rejects him / her. The Spartacist League, adopting a resolute Bolshevik stance, concurs.
As far as Stalin goes, he reversed the Bolshevik position on abortion-on-demand primary because he wished to uphold the nuclear family (read: women's subordination to men). His other polices in this area---such as rejecting communal laundries, dining halls, etc.---bears this interpretation out.
Now that I've covered the basics, lets drop it. I find discussing abortion to be inappropriate for men.
