The Role Of Abortion In US Politics

The United States has been divided now over the issue of abortion for thirty-three years since the Supreme Court’s ruling in Roe v. Wade in 1973. As of today, over 45 million legal abortions have been performed in the United States. Pro-choice advocates hold these 45 million abortions as being 45 million times women have exercised their right to choose to get pregnant and to choose to control their own bodies. To pro-life, or anti-abortion, advocates these 45 million abortions constitute 45 million murders, a genocide of human life in the United States propagated by the court’s ruling in Roe v. Wade. The debate over abortion in the United States is thus a debate of two extremes. One side argues from the personal liberty of the mother. The

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on the 1973 Roe v. Wade interpreted the constitutional right to privacy portion to entail a woman’s right to abortion. This case gave rise to the most intense and political debate in the U.S. today. This debate was further complicated in the 1992 decision in the Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, which allowed for states to enact legislation to restrict and regulate abortion. The dispute over abortion rights has remained constant over the last 20 years between 1973 and 1994 (Carmines, & Woods, 2002). Moreover, there is a sharp divide between Democratic and Republican parties. Democratic party elites have taken a pro-choice approach while Republicans are pro-life. According to a survey

Abortion was still causing problems ten years after the Roe v. Wade case decision. The decision caused division and created virtually two groups. As a result of the decision relating to abortion two types of groups emerged pro-life and pro-choice. “The pro-life group feels women should not have an abortion; whereas pro-choice believes the woman herself should have the right to decide if she wants an abortion” (Brannen et al 788). “Pennsylvania law issue in Casey regulated abortion requiring physicians to provide women with information about fetal development and alternative to abortions” (Brannen et al). The

Since the 1960s, the fight to receive accessible and affordable abortions has been a largely controversial issue in the United States. The case Roe v. Wade was the climax of that fight, for “the Court held that... only a pregnant woman and her doctor have the legal right to make the decision about an abortion” (“History of Abortion”). Although Roe v. Wade ultimately made abortions legal in the States, there are still setbacks for affordable and accessible abortions today, and many of these conflicts may be directly traced to state-by-state determination of abortion laws.

The decision in Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court case that legalized abortion in the United States, had a very evident and profound impact on the social and political climates of the United States. Before the case, it had seemed that abortion was a settled issue in America: a majority of people opposed the practice, and a majority of states had abortion bans. However, by the 1960’s, political factions and campaigns were rising up and stirring the waters of reproductive rights. Abortion had changed during the courses of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, morphing from a private practice of the people into a great political divide. Abortion was actually easily accessible during the Nineteenth Century, but the rise of religious fundamentalism compelled citizens to become involved in either the protection of the fetus or the defense of reproductive rights. Roe v. Wade has been either labeled as the legal settling of the abortion issue or the igniter of change in regards to abortion. The decision not only affected the minds of the people, but the decision had also set a legal precedent that affected more than thirty Supreme Court cases that later dealt with abortion (Planned Parenthood).

The decision of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court case that legalized abortion in the United States, had a very evident and profound impact on the social and political climates of the United States. Before the case, it had seemed that abortion was a settled issue in America: a majority of people opposed the practice, and a majority of states had abortion bans. However, by the 1960’s, political factions and campaigns were rising up and stirring the waters of reproductive rights. Abortion had changed during the courses of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, morphing from a private practice of the people into a great political divide. Abortion was actually easily accessible during the Nineteenth Century, but the rise of religious fundamentalism compelled citizens to become involved in either the protection of the fetus or the defense of reproductive rights. Roe v. Wade had been either labeled as the legal settling of the abortion issue or the igniter of change in regards to abortion. The decision not only affected the minds of the people, but the decision had also set a legal precedent that affected more than thirty Supreme Court cases that later dealt with abortion (Planned Parenthood).

The issue of abortion is one of the most controversial topics of our time, but recently the amount of public interest has grown exponentially. A number of bills regarding this policy issue such as Defund Planned Parenthood Act of 2015 and Child Interstate Notification Act have both greatly influenced the public’s opinion of abortion. Although, the issue of abortion hasn’t always been like this; according to Timeline of Abortion Laws and Events, an article from the Chicago Tribune, “The earliest anti-abortion laws were intended to protect women from untrained abortionists.” (Timeline) Since the 1973 passing of the Supreme Court Case, Roe V Wade, women have been able to obtain the abortion procedure in all 50 states, 46 of which were

On January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court, on the case of Roe v Wade, ruled to legalize abortion in all fifty US states. Forty two years after this decision, approximately 56 million abortions have been performed in the US alone and this number continues to climb drastically day to day. For some individuals, this number is simply not enough. For example, in her article, It Is Time to Integrate Abortion into Primary Care, Susan Yanow argues the case that abortion is here to stay. With this observation, she further believes that the procedure should be made more available to all women, and likewise, any physician should be easily allowed to perform abortions.

Americans recently elected a new president. As some people expected, there have been some changes made to our health care bill, government funding, tax reform and more changes are proposed but have not passed yet. Donald Trump, a new American president, have a different opinion about health care structure and funding in the United States than previous president Barak Obama. Some of the reforms proposed by Trump since he took over the office, such as Obamacare repeal, failed to pass earlier this year. According to Caldwell (2017), “Senate Republicans failed to pass a pared-down Obamacare repeal bill early Friday on a vote of 49-51 that saw three of their own dramatically break ranks”. A social institution,

We have seen a monumental amount of political and social activism coming from Pro-life and Pro-choice proponents in the 25 years following the Supreme Court 's landmark decision in Roe v. Wade. Far from settling the issue of a woman 's constitutional right to an abortion, the Roe decision galvanized pro-life and prochoice groups and precipitated many small "battles" in what many on both sides view to be a "war" between fetal protection and women 's access to reproductive choice (Oliveri, 1998). Now, the choice to abort a child in what is now being deemed as “late-term” abortion is something that activists and political leaders are wanting.

Otto von Bismarck once said, “Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made.” The arduous process that a bill undergoes in order to become a law may seem grueling and pointless; however, the processes high caliber of difficulty allows for the extreme prestige and exclusivity of bills that are passed. Because the process is so exhausting, and filibusters, subsequently requiring a super-majority vote to pass a bill, have always been such a threat in Congress, historically, bills that attempt to reform sensitive issues have not fared well in the legislative branch. However, when Congress does pass controversial laws, it then also faces the task of effectively enforcing them. But, when the process is carried out to

Abortion policy has been shifting throughout American history as American views have simultaneously transitioned from more conservative to more liberal. Doctors, specifically regular physicians, have surprisingly guided the discussion surrounding abortion in the most influential way. Their power, in particular, their medical expertise, has allowed them to take hold of the issue and push against abortion from a medical stance. As a result of the change in traditionalistic views, the power the doctors held for a long time was taken by women, and abortion simultaneously became not an issue of health, but one questioning morality as well as a woman’s right to choose: pro-life and pro-choice. In America, abortion policy has transitioned from an issue of health and morality to one of women’s rights over time due to the power shifting from doctors to women as a result of modernization and the change in how Americans saw religion; this shift in turn impacting how the abortion issue’s sides are defined and how the issue is argued.

The fear of a change in racial hierarchy and the rise of power among women in society, due to the election of America’s first black President Barack Obama in 2008, the ideal of a woman as head (Hillary Clinton), and the belief in a woman’s right to choose have significantly increased voter participation among southern, bible carrying, poor, and uneducated white men. Was this Presidential Election a way to keep White Supremacy intact? How has religion and views towards abortion affect the election? Was the fear in the changing of gender roles and racial hierarchy the real reason Donald Trump got elected?

In this this political science paper I will go into depth on the book Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood to discuss Kristen Luker’s central argument about why people are prolife and prochoice today. Some argue that the central disagreement between prochoice and prolife activist is when life actually begins. As the argument goes, if the country could agree on when that occurs then the argument over abortion would end. I’m going to discuss Luker’s central argument first then demonstrate my knowledge of Luker’s argument based on the justices’ argument, ideas, and comments. After that I will show how we see her argument play out in the Slate magazine article about the Supreme Court.

Abortion has been a complex social issue in the United States ever since restrictive abortion laws began to appear in the 1820s. By 1965, abortions had been outlawed in the U.S., although they continued illegally; about one million abortions per year were estimated to have occurred in the 1960s. (Krannich 366) Ultimately, in the 1973 Supreme Court case of Roe v. Wade, it was ruled that women had the right to privacy and could make an individual choice on whether or not to have an abortion during the first trimester of pregnancy. (Yishai 213)