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Effect of Public Policy on Abortion

Abortion in the United States

In 2008, the Guttmacher Institute reports that since Roe v. Wade(1973) legalized abortion, nearly 50 million abortions have been performed. Nearly half of all pregnancies in the United States are unintended, of that 4 in 10 are aborted. It is estimated that 35% of American women will have at least one abortion in their life time, and 61% of abortions are obtained by women who have at least one child already. Women in their twenties account for half of all abortions performed, and teenagers account for 18%.

Abortion & Life by Jennifer Baumgardner highlights some of the issues and conceptions framing the experience of abortion for women. The legalization of abortion has resulted in the eradication of the common killers septicemia and bleeding to death that afflicted women that underwent illegal abortions. Abortion has not always been illegal, it was British common law, and therefore early American common law to allow for abortion up until the time the woman could feel the movement of the fetus, called “quickening” and the procedure was performed by midwives and doctors. It wasn’t until the turn century that every state in the Union had an anti-abortion law which was combined with Victorian attitudes on morality and the increasing professionalism and prestige of doctors.

In September 2010, CQ Researcher published “Abortion Debates: Should States Enact New Restrictions?” by Kenneth Jost. Prior to 1821, when Connecticut passed the first law in the nation criminalizing abortion on the basis that it would protect women botched abortions which can cause death; it wasn’t until later that a moral component was included into the justification for criminalizing abortion. Abortion has been a focus of national and state politics, especially in light of the health care bill and the demand by Pro-Life Democrats that tax payers funds would not be used to pay for abortions in the new health care bill. In Oklahoma, physicians are required by law to show the woman an image of the ultrasound and describe the image before she can undergo an abortion, although the woman is allowed to turn away. Montana requires that a woman is informed before the abortion that the procedure ends the life of ‘”a separate, unique, living human being”’ and that the fetus feels pain. Groups that support these anti-abortion laws state that these laws are intended to make sure the woman knows all the information before deciding to have an abortion, the Center for Reproductive Rights finds these laws to be an attempt to make women seeking an abortion feel shameful and guilty and demeaning in that they presume that women make this decision without deliberation and considering alternatives and their feelings.

Public Opinion and Abortion

In “The Role of Party Activists in the Evolution of the Abortion Issue” by James Wood and Edward G. Carmines published in Political Behavior in 2002 they seek to understand the role that party activists which they define as citizens who are more heavily involved in political campaigns than average voters and delegates to national nominating conventions have had on changing abortion attitudes from 1972-2000 for the Democratic and Republican parties. In 1976, abortion became part of makeup of both the Republican and Democratic party platforms but was worded in “vague and general language” until 1984 when both parties clarified their stance on abortion. Up until 1984, there was little difference between the campaign party activists on abortion, that it was actually Republicans that were slightly more pro-choice than Democrats; since then the alignment between abortion attitudes has become more closely aligned with partisanship and the parties have become more defined themselves on their stance on the abortion issue.

Political Behavior featured an article in 2004 by Benjamin Highton, “Policy Voting in Senate Elections: The Case of Abortion” studying the impact of information on voter choices. Highton finds that when there is a difference of abortion stances between the two senate candidates that abortion becomes salient in its impact on vote choice. The author finds the more information the voter possesses about the candidate’s abortion stance; the greater the impact of that candidate’s stance on the voter’s choice in their candidate selection in the senate election. Ultimately the conclusion is reached that what matters most to voters when it comes to abortion is the stance of the individual candidate over that of their national party which they are affiliated with.

The Sociological Forum published in June 2002, “Changing Frameworks in Attitudes toward Abortion” by Jennifer Stickler and Nicholas L. Danigelis on the difference in influence of the Pro-Choice and Pro-Life movements on the public. The authors find that the links between social movements and abortion suggest that “abortion attitudes have been shaped by social movement organizations, it appears that the pro-life movement has been more successful at framing the abortion issue than has the pro-choice movement.” The reason that the pro-life movement has been more successful is their successful linkage of abortion to other social issues that are pertinent.