The never ending division

Abortion appears as one of the most sensitive issue in modern America, opposing the “liberty of women” to “the sanctity of life”, we could have the feeling that this opposition is only born in 1973, with the Roe vs Wade law. But it is not the case.Indeed, The Making of Pro life activists : How social movement mobilization works by Munson and Ziad as long as The abortion puzzle” in Made in America by Fischer and Claude and remind us that Roe vs Wade is the culminating point of a century old debate and the amounts of polemics has not growing weaker since.

But what is interesting is that it’s the Roe vs Wade that launched the rise of pro life activists from public society, the pro life movement was at the very beginning led by doctors from the XIXth century to the 1950’s, and not by the churches or the general public, in order to maintain their monopoly on medicine. Going against conventional wisdom, the churches only started to play a role in the 1960s – 1970s.

Another point from Fischer and Claude is that the division on the abortion issue has not changed since the 1970s, despite important change of public opinions on other moral issues such as homosexuality or premarital sex, which are now largely perceived as normal behavior. So we can’t oppose generations, no one being more liberal than another on that particular issue. Another point of the readings is that the actions of militants have been ineffective in changing public opinion in one way or another. Thus public opinion is largely in agreement with the present statu quo, people don’t want to ban abortion but don’t want to make it easier either.