Abortion and American Politics by Craig and O'Brien is an impartial look at both sides of the abortion issue, from a political perspective. The authors examine the abortion issue as a litmus test for candidates of both political parties. It is the one overriding issue against which all political candidates will be judged. Although Roe v. Wade (1973) hinged on the issue of privacy, one's stance on abortion has become anything but a private issue. A clear line of demarcation along the lines of abortion separates the two parties and the candidates who vie for election.
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 general, the following principal applies: an embryo in the uterus does not constitute a human being, or a "person," with rights under the Constitution. Democrats do not believe that life begins with conception, as do Republicans. Since making its landmark decision in 1973, the Supreme Court has held that abortion is legal, while allowing the individual states to pile restriction after restriction on a woman's constitutional right to privacy. The effect of this ...