Abortion Politics

Report Outline
Abortion as a Campaign Issue
Abortion Reform Movement, 1959–73
Issues for Post-Election Period
Special Focus

Abortion as a Campaign Issue

One of the major surprises of the 1976 election campaign has been the prominence of the abortion issue. From the opening days of the presidential primary season last January, both political parties and their candidates have been under heavy pressure from dedicated groups and individuals demanding endorsement of strong stands favoring or opposing legalized abortion. Since the formal start of the general election campaign on Labor Day, President Ford and his Democratic opponent, Jimmy Carter, continually have been asked to define and redefine their stands on this emotion-laden, divisive and complex question.

Most of the impetus has come from groups working to overturn a Supreme Court decision upholding a woman's constitutional right to choose to have an abortion. The court ruled, on Jan. 22, 1973, that only during the final three months of pregnancy can the state constitutionally prohibit abortions (see p. 774). The court later extended women's abortion rights by ruling, July 1, 1976, that a woman need not obtain spousal or parental consent to have an abortion.

Since it was legalized in 1973, abortion has become the most frequently performed surgical procedure in the nation. Nearly one million legal abortions were performed in the United States in 1975, according to a recent study by the Alan Guttmacher Institute, based on statistics gathered by the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare.