What's unsaid nonetheless governs the need for any reason, not to mention a 'specifically marxist reason,' for defending access to abortion, just as gay research in gay genes is governed by heterosexism & homophobia (even though those gay scientists _explicitly_ disagree with the latter).
Alex or anyone else wouldn't think of asking for a specifically marxist reason for the abolition of slavery at this point in history (or the right to breathe, the right to go see a dentist, the right of black people to go to any public restroom, not just the restrooms that say 'colored,' ad infinitum), unless in jest or as some kind of purely mental exercise.
Questions of how to justify the defense of abortion (the legal right as well as substantial access) come up (for liberals, marxists, and many others on the side of reproductive rights & freedoms) only because we submit ourselves to the ideology that tells us that abortion should not be thought of as a matter-of-fact, run-of-the-mill, very mundane, very common, very safe medical procedure. I've had one myself. Millions of women have one every year. (Many women are silent about their experience of abortion, unless it can be cast as a 'tragic' story of rape, economic hardship, etc. I feel the weight of ideology in their silence. Maybe we need a 'coming out' day for women who had abortions.) But still abortion is thought of as a separate 'moral' issue, not part of general health care, even by those who are in favor of the right to abortion. That is why Alex didn't ask, 'what's the marxist reason to struggle for medical care'? He didn't ask, 'what's the marxist reason to struggle for the rights of women?' He specifically singled out abortion, _not at all_ because he is against it, but his ideas are (as many others' are) governed by the dominant ideology.
My concern is how we might do theory/activism in a way that would bring people to acknowledge the fact of the need/desire for abortion, without going through moral/philosophical 'debates' set up by the Right (who benefited from doctors' drive to 'professionalize' their work in the late 19th century in America).
Yoshie