The Right-to-Life Movement, the Reagan Administration, and the Politics of Abortion

This book offers a political, ideological, and social history of the national right-to-life movement in the 1980s under President Ronald Reagan. It analyzes anti-abortion engagement with the legislative, judicial, and executive branches, and offers what is frequently a narrative of disappointment and factionalism. The chapters explore pro-life responses to Supreme Court vacancies, attempts to pass a constitutional amendment, and broader legislative and bureaucratic strategies, including successful campaigns against international and domestic family planning programs. The book suggests that the 1980s transformed the anti-abortion cause, limiting the types of ideas and approaches possible at a national level. Although the movement later claimed Reagan as a "pro-life hero," while he was President right-to-lifers continuously struggled with the gap between his words and deeds. They also had a fraught relationship with the broader Republican Party. This book charts the political education of right-to-lifers, offering insights into social movement activism and conservatism in the late twentieth century.

Offers an in-depth analysis of the loyalty that developed between the right-to-life movement and the Reagan administration Explores the various factions within this movement during the 1980s, differentiating between the Religious Right, the Catholic Church, pro-life Republican politicians and pro-life organizations Shows how political access transformed the right-to-life cause and how this strategy continued to shape these organizations' alliance with the Republican Party for decades

Autorentext

Prudence Flowers is a lecturer at Flinders University, Australia. She teaches and researches United States history. She has published on first-wave feminism and the temperance movement in the late nineteenth century and on anti-abortion activism in the 1970s and 1980s.

Inhalt

Chapter 1: Introduction.- Chapter 2: A Brief History of the National Movement to End Abortion.- Chapter 3: A Prolife Disaster: The Sandra Day O'Connor Nomination.- Chapter 4: A Movement in Disarray: The Hatch/Helms Fight.- Chapter 5: Voodoo Demographics: The Right-to-Life Movement Confronts the Population Establishment.- Chapter 6: Cultivating Reagan's Abortion Legacy: His Last Years in Office.- Chapter 7: The Lessons of the Reagan Years.