The Politics of Abortion Policy in United States of America

Submitted By : Ankita Mukherjee May, 2011

THE POLITICS OF ABORTION POLICY IN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Introduction Abortion has become an increasingly debated issue in the United States of America. There a sharp divide between those for and against abortion. Those for abortion see it as integral right of the woman to have control over her own body and terminate a pregnancy that she does not desire. This is seen especially relevant in the context where women do not have or are not able to negotiate use of contraception and are also subjected to forceful sex by their partner. Abortion becomes a last resort for such women. As opposed to this are those who oppose abortion. This is based on the premise that even the fetus has life and abortion amounts to killing a life and is therefore unethical and immoral. The former are called pro choice and the latter pro life. While the ideological debate between the two continues, abortion related policies in many states have become more restrictive and abortion services have seen a sharp decline in terms of availability. In the United States a study found that the availability of clinics providing abortion has fallen by 37% since 1982. The proportion of women who live in counties with no abortion provider has increased from 28% to 34%. In 2000 it was found that 86 of the 276 metropolitan areas of United States and almost all non metropolitan areas had no abortion service. (Henshaw and Finer,2001). This paper explores the role of the Religious Right in the United States in influencing abortion policy which has subsequently had an effect on availability of abortion services. The first section of the paper outlines the context for the emergence of the recent debate on abortion followed by the context for rise of the Religious Right. The sections following it examine the ways in which the Religious Right has actively influenced and ideologically penetrated different segments of the American society that have bearing on abortion policy.

Roe v. Wade Bringing the Abortion Debate into Prominence Historically abortion was illegal in most of the states in United States of America since the late nineteenth century. The American Medical Association had played a crucial role in the

criminalization of abortion in America through a sustained campaign that it launched in 1858. By 1890 almost all the states had criminalized abortion at all stages of pregnancy and given physicians the rights to decide when abortion was medically necessary. (Mohr 1978; Luker 1984 cit in Beisel and Kay, 2004). It has been argued that both gender and race were important considerations for the anti-abortion movement at this time. Existing traditional gender roles were being challenged (the suffragist movement had also started challenging gender roles) and there was paranoia about the immigrant races1 taking over the American Anglo-Saxon by breeding more. Motherhood was seen as the most important role of women in society and abortions meant that women were challenging and refusing to take up this sacred role. The American middle class women who were seen as having repeated abortions were condemned as being vain and fashionable.2 (Beisel and Kay, 2004)

Much of these laws remained until 1973 when the Supreme court for the first time in the Roe v. Wade changed jurisprudence. Once again the issue of abortion was brought to the forefront. The supreme court used article fourteen of the US constitution on right to privacy to conclude that states could not interfere in womens decision of abortion until the fetus was viable. Thus a trimester framework was created whereby states were given more powers for regulation of abortion at the later trimesters. This became and issue of debate among those supporting the womans right to terminate her pregnancy and thus have right over her own body and those who consider that the fetus had life and therefore abortion amounts to ending the life of a fetus. While the former are clubbed under pro choice , the later call them selves pro life. This debate has moved from court rooms to become a major rallying point in American politics. Much has changed in legislation and policy to clearly indicate a gradual strengthening of the anti-abortion lobby. Some of these will be discussed in the next section. But one factor that has played a significant role in bringing about this change has been the rise of the Religious Right in the United States.

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In 19 century, Celts, Irish, German were referred to as race. The homogenizing of all these as whites happened later. There are also instances where clergymen, doctors and other anti-abortion supporters compared abortion to infanticide carried by hindoo mothers in India, clearly showing the racist undertone of uncivilized pagan races killing their own children. Abortion was also condemned as being uncivilized. (Beisel and Kay, 2004)

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Rise of the Religious Right The rise of the Religious Right (earlier the New Right) as a force has to be seen in the context of the strengthening womens movement and the gay rights movement in the US some thirty years ago. Feminists were challenging the traditional notions about womens sexuality and demanding greater or equal role for men in the house. The gay rights movement was challenging traditional notions about family and sexuality. Just as the medical fraternity had anti abortion stance as a tool to counter the changes in the nineteenth century, the Religious Right has become a strong force in defending the traditional notions of family and sexuality in the twentieth and twenty first century. Joffe and Mauro have used the concept of moral panic 3 to explain this phenomena of rise of the Religious Right.

The first visible legislative success for the New Right (as opposed to the Old Right which had historically largely focused on foreign policy) was in 1971 when it influenced President Richard Nixon to stop passage of the Child Care Bill which would have made a grant of $2 billlion for child care. This was done by organizing thousands of housewives -mainly through church congregations- to send letters to the White House expressing their alarm that the government was going to take over the care of their children. As a result Nixon vetoed the bill (Joffe and Mauro, 2007). It was the Roe v. Wade judgment however, that brought together different forces of the right and popular support from certain sections. A number of Religious Right affiliated groups were formed such as Focus on the Family, the Christian Coalition, the Family Research Council, the Concerned Women of America, and the Traditional Values Coalition. Since then the Religious Right has played an important role in politicizing the issue, mobilize support around pro-life movement and more importantly impact abortion policy at large. While the anti- abortion movement has been an important rallying point for the Religious Right, they have organized their opposition around a spectrum of reproductive and sexual rights issues that includes access to contraception, sexuality education and rights of gay and lesbian couples to get married. Sexuality education has been restricted to an abstinence only policy. (Fried, 2010).

The term moral panic was coined by British sociologist Stanley Cohen and is defined as a condition [that] emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests [A]t times it has serious and long-lasting repercussions and might produce such changes as those in legal or social policy or even in the way society conceives itself

With the emergence of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the religious right has gained moral ground by emphasizing that religious faith and values are crucial in countering the pandemic. Abortion and infact reproductive health related policy in the United States is increasingly being influenced by the Religious Right. This became quite apparent during the era of George W. Bush. What in fact has happened is a permeation of the ideology of the Religious Right about abortion and to a degree perhaps reproductive rights in general into different segments of society. The following section will throw light on how political forces have combined with the Religious Right to forward an anti-abortion atmosphere in the United States and also how this ideology is reflected in judiciary, media as well as public opinion.

Religious Right in Politics The crucial role that the religious right has come to play in American politics is evident from the fact that the first executive act that president Obama passed was to rescind the global gag rule. This was symbolic just as it had been for George W. Bush who had re-imposed it as his first presidential act. (Fried,2010). The potential of voters affiliated to the religious right in influencing elections was realized quite early on. The role of the religious conservatives affiliated to the religious right in electing Ronald Regan as the president in 1980 is widely acknowledged. With the election of Regan, the Republican Party recognized the importance of this segment in influencing votes. It was not surprise that during the world population conference in 1994, Regan introduced the Mexico City Policy or the gag rule as it came to be known. As per this rule federal funding (USAID) cannot be used to fund any orgnisation that provides abortion related services including counseling. The Clinton administration had rescinded it but with the election of George W. Bush, this was reversed. The Bush administrations policies have been blatant in favouring the position of the religious right in case of reproductive policies in general and especially abortion. This is clearly because Bushs presidential victory in 2001 is attributed significantly to the support of this segment. Bush went beyond the litmus test that Regan had adopted. He not only actively appointed those who were ideologically aligned or even open supporters of the of the Religious Right, he

actively worked to distort scientific facts and pressurize the scientific community to remove evidence that strengthened the argument of the pro-choice lobby. Mauro and Joffe (2007), have quoted historian Gary Wills(2006) to show how Evangelists were consulted in making key appointments in places that would affect their agenda. They were consulted in making appointments in the Centers for Disease Control, the Food and Drug Administration, and Health and Human Services agencies . Appointments to Advisory Boards that would affect decisions on reproductive health were also made on the basis of their adherence to pro-life stand. (Mooney, 2005; Specter, 2006 cit in Mauro and Joffe 2007). Even appointment in places that did not directly concern reproductive rights were made on this basis. For instance Scientists being considered for various posts as in the case of advisory panel for the National Institute for Drug Abuse were asked if they had voted for Bush and their stand on important issues like abortion. Mauro and Joffe (2007) have also quoted a journalist Rajiv Chandrasekaran (2006) to show how the conservative ideology guided the Bush Administrations appointment in the Iraq Coalition Provisional Authority. The earlier head of this coalition was reputed physician Burkle- who had extensive experience in disaster relief as well as experience in Kurdish Iraq. Burkle was shortly replaced by James Haverman, whose only claim to the post was that he ran a Christian adoption agency that sought to discourage women from having abortions. Mr. Haverman went on to initiate a no smoking campaign in war ravaged Iraq and initiated the privatization of the Iraq health care system while the ruined hospital in Iraq went unattended.

Scientific research also came under the scanner under the Bush Administration. One of the right wing organizations- Traditional Values Coalition provided some members of the congress with a list of 157 researchers whose projects had been funded through the National Institute of Health and which this coalition found objectionable. These included research on gays, lesbians, sex workers. But before this became public, NIH staff had unofficially warned the potential grantees to remove words like sex work , men who have sex with men from title pages and abstracts that were accessible to public. The website of government funded National Cancer Institute put up information that abortion caused breast cancer even though there is no evidence for this. Center for Disease Control, Atlanta posted misleading information about effectiveness of

condoms. Instead of information on the usage of condoms it only provided information on faliure (Fried,2010)

Another powerful tool to further the agenda of the right wing has been through state funding. Under the Faith Based Initiative, federal money was given to religious groups who provided social services. But this was not subject to the same scrutiny that non religious providers were subject to. (Fried,2010)The Bush administration increased funding to faith based organizations several fold. These organizations either ran crisis pregnancy centers or were involved in abstinence only sexuality education. On the urging from Religious Right, $30 million of public money was given to crisis pregnancy centers. These usually counsel women against abortion. In a number of cases this money has been used to buy ultrasound machines to convince women not undergo abortion. (Simon, 2006 cit in Mauro and Joffe,2007).

Legislature at the national and state levels has also progressively taken strict anti abortion stance. This clearly shows the strengthening of the Religious Right in US politics. The US Congress apart from passing the ban on partial birth abortion (which was contested in the courts), introduced anesthesia for fetus after a certain gestation period as a measure against fetal pain. (even though there is little scientific evidence supporting this). When the Residency Review Committee for Obstetrics and Gynecology of the Accreditation College of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) stipulated that residents should be offered routine training in carrying out abortion , for the first time ever the Congress held hearings and nullified this requirement (even though there was a clause for residents to opt out if they wanted to for religious or other reasons). This was an unprecedented interference in medical practice( Mauro and Joffe,2007). State legislatures have gone a step further and introduced a number of Anti abortion measures. States like, Idaho , Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, North Dakota, South Dakota, South Carolina, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming have introduced some of the most stringent measures. 15-20 legal restrictions have been enacted in the recent years. These include limits on the number of abortions a physician can perform, requirements for abortion facilities to have operating rooms/surgical centers to perform both medication (the pill) and surgical abortion, forced biased counseling and mandatory delays, permission is granted to health care providers and entire facilities to refuse to provide abortion services, refusal to allow Medicaid to cover
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abortion, requirement of parental consent for young women to have an abortion and laws stating that only physicians may perform abortions, preventing advanced practice health professionals from offering this medical service. (Castle, 2011). Another set of legislation which have been termed TRAP (Targeted Restrictions of Abortion Providers) are as the name suggests not applicable to any other areas of healthcare. They set out many cumbersome conditions for Abortion providers so that it becomes difficult for them to operate. For example some of the legislation mandates abortion providers to comply with requirements like the number of parking spaces, the rate of airflow, or the width of doorways for the buildings in which they work (Center for Reproductive Rights, 2004 cit in Mauro and Joffe, 2007 ).

The Right is making several other strategic moves by like the Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004 (Laci and Conners Law), which states that the murderer of a pregnant woman can be charged with two crimes, or an amendment to a childrens health bill that mandated health care to a fetus the to strengthen the idea of fetal personhood . Bills to confer personhood to fetus have already been introduced in North Dakota,Montana, Maryland, Alabama, and South Carolina. One state that has been at the forefront of anti abortion legislation is Oklahoma. A recent law requires all women desiring abortion to undergo an ultrasound test and be shown the monitor as they listen to a detailed description of the fetus one hour before having an abortion. The law also states that the clearest technology must be used. In this case it turns out to be a vaginal ultrasound. Unlike other states which have such laws, the Oklahoma law mandates that a doctor or technician set up the monitor so the woman can see it and to describe the heart, limbs and organs of the fetus. Another law which was debated in 2010 in the Oklahoma legislature, but not passed would have allowed the womans spouse, her parents, siblings, guardian, or current or former licensed health care provider to sue for damages, if she does not have this ultrasound. Although not enacted, this law shows the underlying ideology where the womans personhood is subversive to the much contested personhood of the fetus. The woman is constantly being projected as the villain who trying to kill the fetus and the family members should be in a position to control her (Castle, 2011).

The Judiciarys Tilt to the Right Much has changed since the Roe v. Wade judgment. The emergence of the religious right as an important constituency of the Republican Party has meant that many conservative judges favoured by the Religious Right are now part of American judiciary both at the Supreme Court as well as lower courts. The Religious Rights influence was quite blatant in the summer of 2005. The Right convened a number of meetings with the White House, what were termed as judicial Sundays, in which pastors and congregants across the US discussed over teleconference, possible nominees for the Supreme Court (Kirkpatrick, 2005 cit in Mauro and Joffe,2007 ). Immediately after the 2006 election, President Bush resubmitted names of six highly conservative judges who were favoured by the Religious Right, whom the Democrats had earlier rejected as being too extreme. (Mauro and Joffe,2007 ). Following the Roe v. Wade judgment several subsequent legal battles took place in which the court has adopted a relatively anti abortion stance. Subsequent legislations have accepted as legal certain provisions like parental consent, waiting period and restriction of public funding. These have helped the states to enact more restrictive legislations. Two landmark cases in this respect are Webster v. Reproductive Health Services , 1989 and the famous Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey in 1992. In the former, the supreme court upheld the right of the state to restrict abortion in public hospitals and the provision that physicians must perform several tests of viability before providing abortion services. In addition it did not strike down the preamble to a Missouri law that declared that human life begins at the moment of conception. In the later case , the Supreme Court abandoned the trimester framework of the Roe v. Wade in favour of what was called undue burden. In other words, states to impose abortion regulation as long as it did not impose undue burden on the woman who was seeking abortion. (New, 2011) .This loosened the law to a great extent and the recent spate of laws in the different states is a consequence. We see therefore a definite shift within the judiciary towards the right. While Roe v. Wade has not been overturned, its impact has definitely been diluted by subsequent judgments. Media and Propaganda Media is a powerful tool for propaganda. In the US popular media, pro abortion stance is conspicuous by its absence. Television and films have stopped showing positive or even neutral

portrayal of abortion due to fear of backlash from the Right. Some large media houses like FOX television news and other conservative corporate houses and foundations like Coors Brewery, Curves for Women and Heritage Foundation undertake research, produce anti-abortion messages and write antiabortion laws and policies in states across the US. (Castle,2011). The Right has also been relentless in its pro life propaganda. In 1985 a video The Silent Scream was circulated which was very effective but gave false information that the woman wanting abortion was in a late stage of pregnancy. (Mauro and Joffe,2007). The Oral Roberts Mega Church and University in Tulsa,Oklahoma organized a free Saturday night concert for young people that was billed as Genocide: A Night for Life. The message being propagated that abortion is equal to genocide for communities of color. These foundations have provided strategic financial support to Political Action Committees (PACs), such as the Republican State Leadership Committee and the Club for Growth, that lobby for legislation and ballot initiatives and support pro-life candidates for political office (Castle, 2011). While abortion may never have been openly acceptable, today it is so stigmatized that even using the word abortion is not politically correct. Politicians usually use pro choice to show their support. (Mauro and Joffe, 2007)

An Expansion of Agenda The Religious Right today has expanded its agenda to include stem cell research, emergency contraception and assisted reproductive techniques in its agenda. This has been seen by some as the emergence of embryo politics where conventional notions about life are being altered (Murdoch,2001 cit in Mauro and Joffe, 2007). Embryos therefore are being referred to as preborn or microscopic Americans. The personhood legislations complement these ideas. A consequence of this has been opposition of emergency contraceptives. Emergency Contraceptives were being seen as abortifacient and therefore there was opposition to their over the counter sale by the Right.

Targeting Providers of Abortion Services by the Religious Right Another strategy that has been used by the Right and the Conservatives is to resort to violence against the providers of abortion services. These have ranged from physical assault to efforts at

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publicly shaming such providers. The tactics range from bringing school children in front of abortion clinics and shouting slogans like baby killer to terrorizing abortion care providers by vandalizing their property, to downright murder. Since 1993, seven members of the abortionproviding community have been murdered, six at their workplaces and one in his home. In some places women and staff entering abortion clinics are photographed and their pictures are publicly posted in Churches or near schools of their children with captions like murderers. Other than these direct attacks, abortion providers are stigmatized in everyday life and have to face hospitals who refuse privileges to abortion doctors, landlords who refuse to renew leases, and vendors who refuse to provide essential services such as laundry. Such actions are often mobilized by individuals affiliated with the Religious Right. In Oklahoma, the physicians have to provide detailed information about abortion seekers to the health department which is posted on the website (Mauro and Joffe, 2007;Castle, 2011). Thus we see that the Religious Right is also emerging as an extremist force which also uses terror to support its anti-abortion stance. The stigma of being labeled a murderer and terror of the Religious Right is too much of a price to pay for providing abortion services. At the receiving End The hardening of positions on abortion and the subsequent legislations have had the most adverse impact on poor women of colour who cannot access abortion services and teenagers who do not want pregnancy. Cases of women and teenagers being criminalized and being convicted are increasingly being reported. A teenage boy in Texas was sentenced to life imprisonment, with no possibility of parole for 40 years, for causing the stillbirth of twins. He had beaten his girlfriends stomach at her request to avoid an unwanted pregnancy. Similar cases have been reported in other places where young womens lives are being put at stake by attempting spontaneous abortion and the victims are being criminalized. The pro life lobby seems oblivious to the lives of these victims. (Mauro and Joffe, 2007;Castle, 2011)

Conclusion The hardening of abortion related policy and the declining services related to abortion in the United States, despite the Supreme Court judgment that provides the right to a woman to undergo abortion has to be seen the context of the increasing role of the Religious Right in the
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United States. The rise of the Religious Right itself has to be seen in the context of its growing importance in influencing the American vote. It has consolidated its power especially during the Bush era and has been supported by the Bush Administration in furthering its agenda. This has led to a situation where many states are actively pursuing anti abortion policies under the moralistic garb of pro life thus ignoring womens realities and criminalizing abortion.

Reference: Beisel, Nicola and Tamara Kay (2004): Abortion, Race, and Gender in NineteenthCentury America, American Sociological Review, vol. 69, pp 498-518 Castle, Ann (2011): Abortion in the United States bible belt: organizing for power and empowerment, Reproductive Health , Vol 8, no. 1, pp 1-11. http://www.reproductive-health-journal.com/content/8/1/1 accessed on 26th April, 2011 Fried, Marlene (2010): The Politics of Abortion: A Note in Rao, M. and Sexton, S. (ed) Markets and Malthus, Sage Publications India Pvt Ltd, New Delhi, pp 89-102 Henshaw, S. K and L. B Finer (2003): The Accessibility of Abortion Services in the United States, Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, Vol. 35, No. 1, pp. 1624 Mauro, Diane di and Joffe, Carole (2007): The Religious Right and the Reshaping of Sexual Policy: An Examination of Reproductive Rights and Sexuality Education, Sexuality Research and Social Policy: Journal of NSRC, Vol. 4, Issue 1, pp. 6792 New, Michael J.(2011): Analyzing the Effect of Anti-Abortion U.S. State Legislation in the Post-Casey Era, State Politics & Policy Quarterly , vol 11, No.1, pp 28-47

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