Year

Note: 1998 and 1999 are without estimates for Alaska, California, New Hampshire, and Oklahoma; 1998-2002 are without estimates for Alaska, California, and New Hampshire; and 2004 is without estimates for California, New Hampshire, and West Virginia, which did not report the number of legal abortions. California, New Hampshire, and Louisiana did not report in 2005.

Source: "Abortion Surveillance—United States, 2005," November 2008, Centers for Disease Control ® Infobase Publishing

His position on abortion and endorsed Roe during his run for the presidency in 1984.) Other conservative Protestant denominations, called “fundamentalists” because of their belief in a literal interpretation of the Bible, also came out strongly against abortion. By the end of the 1970s, 82 percent of regular attendees of Protestant and Roman Catholic services opposed abortion at any stage of pregnancy. Yet despite these initial efforts, the opposition to abortion took a long time to coalesce. Nearly a decade passed before a strong constituency arose to organize any consistent and coherent opposition to the already entrenched abortion policies.

During the same period, women’s rights advocates successfully promoted abortion as a critical component of women’s equality. They argued that limiting access to abortion services guarantees continued oppression of women by denying them basic rights of privacy. Organizations like the National Organization for Women (NOW) and the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) undertook large-scale advertising and lobbying campaigns to fight frequent state restrictions. These organizations were especially concerned with those regulations requiring waiting periods or spousal or parental consent. Many women’s rights advocates, including Ruth Bader Ginsberg, looked to the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) as a tool for guaranteeing abortion on demand.

Abortion did not become a major issue in national elections until the presidential race of 1984. Republican president Ronald W. Reagan used his first term of office to promote constitutional protections for the unborn. In 1981 he supported the Human Life Bill introduced by Sen. Jesse A. Helms (R-N. C.). The bill resulted in a series of Senate hearings to determine the point when human life begins. Though no conclusion was reached, the investigation sparked considerable public debate. It also served to divide Republicans and Democrats on the issue. In 1983 President Reagan published “Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation” in the Hwman Life Review. In it, he openly condemned Roe v. Wade as a flawed and unconstitutional decision similar to the 1857 decision Dred Scott v. Sandford (sic), which denied slaves any protection under the law, and the 1896 Court ruling Plessy v. Ferguson, which legalized racial segregation. Reagan called for a constitutional amendment that specifically included the unborn under federal protection. Within a year, Reagan also announced the Mexico City Policy, which ended all U. S. aid to international organizations that actively promoted or performed abortions as a form of birth control. Reagan successfully linked opposition to abortion to the base of Republican ideology. In 1984 the Republican Party platform adopted several specifically antiabortion planks against abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia. Abortion rights advocates relied on the Democratic Party to represent their issues. The 1984 Democratic platform contained planks that emphasized empowerment of women and minorities, including the commitment to public funding of and guaranteed access to abortion services without restrictions.

After Reagan’s landslide victory, Democrats used their majority in the House to oppose the Republican administration’s continued restrictions on abortion services. During his final year, Reagan issued the “Emancipation Proclamation of Preborn Children.” The proclamation was largely symbolic, since he was not legally empowered to enforce his declaration that all fetuses deserve equal protection under the law. At the same time, the proclamation included a directive to the Department of Health and Human Services prohibiting abortion counseling at health facilities receiving federal funds. Opponents labeled this a “gag rule” and abortion rights advocates appeared at numerous presidential press conferences wearing white gags and carrying signs protesting the order, which remained in effect until 1993. After Republican George H. W. Bush’s election in 1988, Congress repeatedly passed bills requiring Medicare funding for abortion, which were vetoed on each occasion. Bush also vetoed legislation that would use fetal tissue from abortions for scientific research. Congress retaliated by overruling Bush’s nominee for the Supreme Court, Robert Bork, who had explicitly criticized Roe v. Wade numerous times during his tenure as federal court judge. The presidents of NOW and NARAL supported Democratic Party efforts to oppose Republican policies and to promote abortion as a necessary right of all women. At the same time, the Republican policies had the support of Rev. Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority, the National Council of Catholic Bishops, and the majority of Protestant denominations, which believe that human rights begin at conception.

Three days after taking office, Democratic president William J. Clinton reversed the Reagan-Bush prohibitions on abortion counseling at federally funded clinics; lifted the ban on abortions at U. S. military bases; and overturned the Mexico City Policy. He also authorized the process for legalizing the controversial drug RU-486, which opened the way for self-administered abortions. The drug began clinical testing in 1995, and the FDA approved the pill in 2000 with President Clinton’s endorsement. Clinton also signed the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (face), which allowed large fines and jail terms against abortion opponents who interfered with access to abortion clinics. face provided specific federal penalties for what were otherwise misdemeanor charges. The Department of Justice, under Clinton’s administration, also advised abortion providers to sue for civil damages under the Racke-

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TEER INELUENCED AND CORRUPT ORGANIZATIONS ACT, a 1970 racketeering statute originally designed to target organized criminals. As a result, protestors were forced to end many of their planned demonstrations for fear that they might be charged with felonies. In 1994 Clinton signed the National Institutes of Health Revitalization Act, which provided federal funds for fetal tissue research. In 1995 the Republican-led Congress passed a bill banning the use of “partial birth abortion,” but Clinton vetoed the measure. One argument by opponents of the ban was that it did not contain an exception for cases when the life of the mother is endangered. Supporters of the ban countered with testimony by the American Medical Association indicating that partial birth abortion is never necessary to save the mother’s life. Clinton vetoed a similar bill in 1997.

In 2003 President George W. Bush signed the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act, the first federal ban on a specific abortion procedure since Roe v. Wade was decided. In Gonzales v. Carhart (2007), the Supreme Court upheld the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act in a 5-4 decision, with Justice Kennedy writing the majority opinion. This was the first abortion procedure ban the Supreme Court had upheld since it decided Roe.

Abortion continues to be a heated issue in American politics, although polls show that the majority of Americans support Roe, while they accept the state regulations on abortion.

See also Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health; eeminism; religion; Webster v. Reproductive Health Services.

Further reading: Donald T. Critchlow, Intended Consequences: Birth Control, Abortion, and the Federal Government in Modern America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999); Mark Graber, Rethinking Abortion: Equal Choice, the Constitution, and Reproductive Politics (Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1996); Rickie Solinger, ed., Abortion Wars: A Half Century of Struggle, 1950-2000 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998); Laurence Tribe, Abortion: The Clash of Absolutes (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1992).

—Aharon W. Zorea