Abortion and American Politics

Democrats have primarily taken pro-choice positions, whereas Republicans have chosen to usurp the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade (1973) decision in as many ways as possible. In other words, Republicans, while having to accept the Supreme Court as the ultimate decision-making body in the United States, have sought to erode the Court's past efforts to grant women autonomy over their own bodies. To Republicans, a woman's body in large part belongs to the state, and a woman must grant certain concessions to the state before being granted an abortion (the abortion must be in the first trimester, a waiting period must be fulfilled, if the woman is underaged parental permission must be granted, etc.). To Democrats, the individual woman's privacy has been the most important concern. She has a right to decide the fate of her own uterus.

The differences between the parties are not always clear-cut, but, in gene

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emanding [the three other abortion cases after Webster in 1989] to the lower courts to be considered in light of Webster, as usually happens when a major ruling bearing on other cases is handed down, a majority on the Court appeared eager to continue to undercut Roe" (242). Clearly the Supreme Court was conservative at the time, and it is even more so now. The authors do not expect impartiality from a conservative Court, and neither should the American public. The stage was set for even more fighting at the local level than ever before. A look at some of the national pro-choice groups will show that these groups may lack the time to effectively battle the Right-to-Lifers. They have the money, but since most of the members of pro-choice groups are employed outside the home, there is little time for them to take their message to the streets. As the authors state, "In contrast to the activists who supported abortion, opponents were much less likely to be employed (94% of pro-choice women worked; 63% of pro-life women did not)" (46). Clearly, the pro-choice movement has more money than time, and it could be argued that they have less time, and more to lose, by getting involved in the types of mischief pro-lifers get involved i
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2217
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)