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Abortion Policy Before Roe: Grassroots and Interest-Group Mobilization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 April 2009

Rosemary Nossiff
Rosemary Nossiff
Affiliation:
Yeshiva University
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Extract

In 1965 abortion was illegal in every state in America except when the woman's life was endangered. Eight years later, in its decision in Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court held that a woman's decision to have an early elective abortion was constitutionally protected.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Policy History , Volume 13 , Issue 4 , October 2001 , pp. 463 - 478
Copyright
Copyright © The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA. 2001

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References

Notes

1. Roe v. Wade 410 U.S. 113 (1973)Google Scholar.

2. In the pre-Roe period, the terms “pro-abortion” and “anti-abortion” were used to describe each side; after Roe they were replaced with “pro-choice” and “prolife,” respectively.

3. Griswold v. Connecticut 381 U.S 471 (1965)Google Scholar.

4. Lader, Lawrence, Abortion II (Boston, 1973), xiGoogle Scholar.

5. Dawson, Richard E. and Robinson, James A., “Inter-Party Competition, Economic Variables, and Welfare Policies in the American States,” Journal of Politics 25 (1963): 265–286CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Dye, Thomas R., Politics, Economics, and the Public (Chicago, 1966)Google Scholar; Mooney, Christopher Z. and Lee, Mei-Hsien, “Legislative Morality in the American States: The Case of Pre-Roe Abortion Regulation Reform,” American Journal of Political Science 39, Issue 3 (08 1995): 599–627CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Meier, Kenneth J. and Johnson, Cathy M., “The Politics of Demon Rum: Regulating Alcohol and Its Deleterious Consequences,” American Politics Quarterly 18, no. 4 (10 1990): 404–429CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Berry, Francis Stokes and Berry, William D., “State Lottery Adoptions as Policy Innovations; An Event History Analysis,” American Political Science Review 84, no. 2 (06 1990): 395–416CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Hutchinson, John D. Jr. and Taylor, George A., “Religious Variables, Political System Characteristics, and Policy Outputs in the American States,” American Journal of Political Science 17 (05 1973): 414–421CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Tatalovich, and Daynes, , eds., Social Regulatory Policy (Boulder, 1988)Google Scholar.

6. Hunter, James Davidson, Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America (New York, 1991)Google Scholar; Luker, Kristen, Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1984)Google Scholar; Skerry, Peter, “The Class Conflict over Abortion,” The Public Interest 4 (1978): 69–84Google Scholar; Ginsberg, Faye D., Contested Lives: The Abortion Debate in an American Community (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1989)Google Scholar.

7. Arney, William Ray and Trescher, William H., “Trends in Attitudes Toward Abortion, 1972–1975,” Family Planning Perspectives 8, no. 3 (05–06 1976): 117–124CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

8. Luker, , Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood, chap. 7Google Scholar.

9. Hunter, , Culture Wars, 50Google Scholar.

10. Finner, Stephen L. and Gamache, Jerome D., “The Relation Between Religious Commitment and Attitudes Toward Induced Abortion,” Sociological Analysis 30 (1969): 1–12CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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12. Mileti, Dennis S. and Barnett, Larry D., “Nine Demographic Factors and Their Relationship to Attitudes Toward Abortion Legalization,” Social Biology 19 (1972): 43–50CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed. Blake, Judith, “Abortion and Public Opinion: The 1960–1970 Decade,” Science 171 (1971): 540–549CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

13. Tatalovich, Raymond and Daynes, Byron W., The Politics of Abortion: A Study of Community Conflict in Public Policymaking (New York, 1981), 118Google Scholar.

14. Public Opinion (05–06 1989): 37Google Scholar.

15. The 1939 law prohibited unlawful abortions but failed to define what constituted a legal, as opposed to an illegal, one.

16. Strictly speaking, the first abortion reform bill was introduced in Pennsylvania in 1967, when Governor Shafer, who was opposed to abortion reform, was in office. However, the bill (SB 38) was part of a broader effort to update the Pennsylvania Constitution, rather than an abortion bill per se. Aside from SB 38, which died in committee, all the other pre-Roe abortion bills in Pennsylvania were introduced beginning in 1970, when Milton Shapp, who favored abortion reform, was governor. In New York, Nelson Rockefeller, who favored reform, was governor throughout the pre-Roe period.

17. On New York, see Lader, , Abortion II, 122Google Scholar; on Pennsylvania, see the Pittsburgh Press, 23 02 1972, 43Google Scholar.

18. Mooney, and Lee, , “Legislative Morality in the American States,” 619Google Scholar.

19. Hansen, Susan B., “State Implementation of Supreme Court Decisions: Abortion Rates Since Roe,” The Journal of Politics 42 (1980): 372–395CrossRefGoogle Scholar. This citation, 385.

20. On the history of reform in Pennsylvania, see Petshek, Kirk R., The Challenge of Urban Reform (Philadelphia, 1973)Google Scholar, and Reichly, James, The Art of Government: Reform and Organization in Politics in Philadelphia (New York, 1959)Google Scholar.

21. Keiser, Richard A., “The Rise of a Biracial Coalition in Philadelphia” in Racial Politics in American Cities, ed. Browning, Rufus P., Marshall, Dale Rogers, Tabb, David H. (New York, 1995), 51Google Scholar.

22. Heineman, Kenneth, A Catholic New Deal: Religion and Reform in Depression Pittsburgh (University Park, Pa., 1999)Google Scholar; Betten, Neil, Catholic Activism and the Industrial Worker (Gainesville, Fla., 1976)Google Scholar.

23. Shefter, Martin, Political Crisis/Fiscal Crisis: The Collapse and Revival of New York City (New York, 1985), 79Google Scholar.

24. Ibid, Chapter 3.

25. For a more detailed comparison of reform in Pennsylvania and New York, see my book, Abortion Before Roe: Abortion Policy in the States (Philadelphia, 2001)Google Scholar.

26. Critchlow, Donald T., Intended Consequences: Birth Control, Abortion, and the Federal Government in Modern America (New York, 1999), chap. 4Google Scholar.

27. Critchlow, , Intended Consequences, 123Google Scholar.

28. Dienes, C. Thomas, Law, Politics, and Birth Control (Urbana, 1972), 277Google Scholar.

29. Critchlow, , Intended Consequences, 126–127Google Scholar.

30. Staggenborg, Suzanne, The Pro-Choice Movement: Organization and Activism in the Abortion Conflict (Oxford, 1991), 14Google Scholar.

31. Lader, , Abortion II, p.57Google Scholar.

32. The following information about the early days of the New York State Right to Life Party is taken from my interview with Edward Golden, Troy, New York, 8 April 1992.

33. Interview with Alan Davitt, former director of the NYCC, and Kathleen Gallagher, staff member of the NYCC, Albany, New York, 7 April 1992.

34. Lader, , Abortion II, 44Google Scholar.

35. Ibid.

36. Ibid, 132.

37. Interviews of members of CPL, January-February, 1998.

38. Ibid.

39. Family Planning Oral History Project Records (Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College, Cambridge, 1976), 54Google Scholar.

40. Baehr, Ninia, Abortion Without Apology: A Radical History for the 1990s (Boston, 1990), 40Google Scholar.

41. Ibid, 41.

42. Lader, , Abortion II, 129–130Google Scholar.

43. See note 15.

44. The PCC's pre-Roe strategy on abortion reform was outlined in a memorandum by William Ball dated 21 February 1967. Files of the PCC.

45. The following account is taken from Dienes, Law, Politics and Birth Control, 277–79.

46. Ibid.

47. The following information on the WCUC, except where noted, is taken from my interview with Mary Winter, Pittsburgh, Pa., 21 October 1992.

48. Hickling, Cathy, “Pro-Life Veteran Mary Winter Keeps Pressing On After 18 Years of Activism,” Expression, 01 1978, 10Google Scholar.

49. Interview with Jane Arnold, Wyncote, Pa., 27 January 1993.

50. Interview with Pat Miller, Pittsburgh, Pa., 20 October 1992.