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No Happy Medium: The Role of Americans’ Ambivalent View of Fetal Rights in Political Conflict over Abortion Legalization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2012

Daniel K. Williams
Daniel K. Williams*
Affiliation:
University of West Georgia
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Journal of Policy History , Volume 25 , Issue 1 , January 2013 , pp. 42 - 61
Copyright
Copyright © Donald Critchlow and Cambridge University Press 2013

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References

Notes

1. Garrow, David J., Liberty and Sexuality: The Right to Privacy and the Making of Roe v. Wade, 2nd ed. (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1998), 302.Google Scholar

2. See, for instance, Tribe, Laurence H., Abortion: The Clash of Absolutes (New York, 1990)Google Scholar; Luker, Kristin, Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1984)Google Scholar; Davison Hunter, James, Before the Shooting Begins: Searching for Democracy in America’s Culture War (New York, 1994)Google Scholar; and Greenhouse, Linda and Siegel, Reva B., “Before (and After) Roe v. Wade: New Questions about Backlash,” Yale Law Journal 120 (2011): 2028–87.Google Scholar

3. For the history of American cultural attitudes toward abortion, see Dubow, Sara, Ourselves Unborn: A History of the Fetus in Modern America (New York, 2011)Google Scholar; and Caron, Simone M., Who Chooses? American Reproductive History Since 1830 (Gainesville, Fla., 2008)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For studies of changes in American abortion law, see Garrow, Liberty and Sexuality; Rubin, Eva R., Abortion, Politics, and the Courts: Roe v. Wade and Its Aftermath, 2nd ed. (New York, 1987)Google Scholar; Critchlow, Donald T., Intended Consequences: Birth Control, Abortion, and the Federal Government in Modern America (New York, 1999)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Critchlow, Donald T., ed., The Politics of Abortion and Birth Control in Historical Perspective (University Park, Pa., 1996)Google Scholar; and Hull, N. E. H. and Hoffer, Peter Charles, Roe v. Wade: The Abortion Rights Controversy in American History, 2nd ed. (Lawrence, Kans., 2010).Google Scholar

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7. Taussig, Abortion, 28–29, 422.

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17. Sarvis and Rodman, The Abortion Controversy, 65; Lader, Abortion, 29–30; “For Abortion Law Reform,” New York Post, 24 June 1966.

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22. Alan F. Guttmacher to F. Thomas, 17 September 1968, folder 24, box 1, Alan Frank Guttmacher Papers, Countway Medical Library, Harvard University; Jane E. Brody, “Abortion: Once a Whispered Problem, Now a Public Debate,” New York Times, 8 January 1968; Francome, Abortion Freedom, 105–7; Hawaii State Legislature Conference Committee Report No. 3-70, 19 February 1970, folder 13, box 509, Anthony C. Beilenson Papers, Special Collections, University of California, Los Angeles; Statement of Senator Anthony C. Beilenson, 9 March 1970, folder 34, box 166, Beilenson Papers; Pitzulo, Carrie, Bachelors and Bunnies: The Sexual Politics of “Playboy” (Chicago, 2011), 158–59Google Scholar; Legislative Analyst’s Report to the Ways and Means Committee of the California State Assembly, [spring 1970], 8–9, “Abortion, 1970–1972” folder, Archives of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles; NARAL, “Facts of Life in California—1973,” “CA, 1973” folder, carton 2, MC 313, NARAL Records, 1968–76, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University; Wayne H. Davis, Statement to House Judiciary Subcommittee Hearings on Abortion, Franklin, Ky., 14 February 1972, folder: “KY: 1969–75,” carton 3, MC 313, NARAL Records, 1968–76.

23. Freeman, Jo, The Politics of Women’s Liberation: A Case Study of an Emerging Social Movement and Its Relation to the Policy Process (New York, 1975), 80–81Google Scholar, 152.

24. Eastern Massachusetts chapter of NOW, Testimony before Judiciary Committee of Massachusetts General Court, 7 February 1972, folder 25, box 2, Patricia Gold Papers, Schlesinger Library; Address of William E. Tinsley, Transcript of panel on “Communications,” Society for Humane Abortion conference, 9 January 1966, “Conference on Abortion, Jan. 9, 1966” folder, box 2, Society for Humane Abortion Records, Schlesinger Library.

25. Hawaii State Legislature Conference Committee Report No. 3-70.

26. Segers, Mary C. and Byrnes, Timothy A., “Introduction: Abortion Politics in American States,” in Abortion Politics in American States, ed. Segers and Byrnes, (New York, 1995), 3–5Google Scholar; Cheriel M. Jensen to NARAL, 23 December 1969, “CA, “October–December 1969” folder, carton 2, MC 313, NARAL Records, 1968–76.

27. “The War on the Womb,” Christianity Today, 5 June 1970, 24–25; L. Nelson Bell, “An Alternative to Abortion,” Christianity Today, 18 June 1971, 17–18; Carl F. H. Henry, “Is Life Ever Cheap?” Eternity, February 1971, 20–21.

28. Michael Taylor, Direct mail on behalf of National Right to Life Committee, 12 February 1971, “National Right to Life Committee, 1970–1972” folder, box 5, North Dakota Right to Life Association Records, North Dakota State Historical Society, Bismarck; Don Effenberger, “Anti-Abortion Victory Held Proof of Values,” Catholic Bulletin, 24 November 1972; William Mitchell, “Abortion Foes Reverse Trend in 2 Months,” Detroit Free Press, 9 November 1972.

29. Miroff, Bruce, The Liberals’ Moment: The McGovern Insurgency and the Identity Crisis of the Democratic Party (Lawrence, Kans., 2007), 145–60Google Scholar; “Military Hospitals Approve Abortions; Local Laws May Be Bypassed,” Washington Post, 18 August 1970; “Nixon Orders End to Eased Abortions in Armed Services,” New York Times, 3 April 1971; Charles Colson to Henry Cashen, 19 July 1972, “July 1972” folder, box 132, Charles W. Colson Files, White House Staff Files, Nixon Presidential Library, Yorba Linda, Calif.; Richard Nixon to Terence Cardinal Cooke, 5 May 1972, “John Ehrlichman [2 of 2]” folder, box 7, Colson Files; William E. Farrell, “Governor Vetoes Abortion Repeal as Not Justified,” New York Times, 14 May 1972.

30. “Court in California, 4–3, Makes Possible Abortion on Demand,” New York Times, 23 November 1972; Robert L. Webber to Lee Gidding, 31 July 1972, “CA, 1972” folder, carton 2, MC 313, NARAL Records, 1968–76.

31. For analyses of Roe and its legal reasoning, see Garrow, Liberty and Sexuality; and Hull and Hoffer, Roe v. Wade.

32. Gallup, George H., The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion, 1972–1977 (Wilmington, Del., 1978), 54Google Scholar, 94; Barry Sussman, “The Swing in Abortion Approval,” Washington Post Magazine, 5 January 1986, 12.

33. Merrill R. Bailey, “Abortion Bill Filed,” Providence Journal, 19 January 1974; Merrill R. Bailey, “Abortions: The Clamor Belies Tide,” Providence Evening Bulletin, 23 January 1974; Hamilton F. Allen, “Abortion Law Ruled Illegal,” Providence Evening Bulletin, 10 June 1975; Marjorie Hyer, “Suits Attack Abortion Rules,” Washington Post, 1 September 1973; Rubin, Abortion, Politics, and the Courts, 127–58.

34. Paul L. Sadler, “The Abortion Issue within the Southern Baptist Convention, 1969–1988” (Ph.D. diss., Baylor University, 1991), 80–136; “New CLC Materials Deal with Abortion,” Baptist Standard, 25 December 1985, 7; McGreevy, John T., Catholicism and American Freedom (New York, 2003), 216–81.Google Scholar

35. Paul M. Steiner to Lawrence Lader, 15 May 1974, “AZ, 1969–75” folder, carton 2, MC 313, NARAL Records, 1968–76; Horan, Dennis J., Grant, Edward R., and Cunningham, Paige C., eds., Abortion and the Constitution: Reversing Roe v. Wade Through the Courts (Washington, D.C., 1987)Google Scholar; Wanda Franz, “A Confused and Arrogant Supreme Court Reaffirms the ‘Right’ to Abortion,” National Right to Life News, 21 July 1992, 3.

36. Paul Freedman, “Partial Victory,” Slate, 9 December 2003, www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2003/12/partial_victory.html; Denise Grady, “Medical Nuances Drove ‘No’ Vote in Mississippi,” New York Times, 14 November 2011.

37. Saletan, William, Bearing Right: How Conservatives Won the Abortion War (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 2003)Google Scholar; “Embryonic Stem Cell Research Receives Widespread Support from Americans,” Harris Interactive, 7 October 2010, www.harrisinteractive.com/NewsRoom/HarrisPolls/tabid/447/mid/1508/articleId/579/ctl/ReadCustom%20Default/Default.aspx.