Abortion

ABORTION IS THE term used to describe expulsion of the fetus from the uterus of a pregnant woman prior to the end of the natural gestational period, which is 9 months or 273 days. Although abortions can occur spontaneously, as a result of trauma or pathological process in either the product of conception or the pregnant woman's body, for the purposes of this article, abortion will refer to a willful removal of the conceptus, embryo, or fetus, by chemical, physical, or surgical means or a combination of those methods for the goal of ending the pregnancy. This subject is bounded by a number of questions regarding personal autonomy, medicine, law, religion, and political power. These questions examine the subject of when life begins, or when a fetus becomes a person. Science and technology have been able to examine the development of a human from the time of conception, but personhood remains a more complex issue, and human life involves more than the biological aspect. In early 19th-century America, abortion was legal until the 5th month or quickening, when the fetus started to move.

Abortion entered national presidential politics late in U.S. history. Originally it was not a partisan issue, but abortion evolved in the 20th and 21st centuries, first as a medical concern, then associated with feminism, liberal policies, and finally, the Republican Party. The first major political change in abortion policy occurred in 1850. The newly established American Medical Association (AMA) criminalized abortion, not because of concern for the woman's health, life, or medical ethics, but because members wanted the exclusive right to perform abortions. They successfully eliminated competition from midwives and non-physicians who routinely performed abortions, and by 1900, the procedure was illegal and allowed only if the woman's life or health was in danger because of her pregnancy.

When the Nineteenth Amendment was passed, abortion was not an issue in any candidate's platform. Although women could run for the presidency, they could not vote. For 30 years the subject remained unchallenged until physicians took the lead, this time to reform state abortion laws. Although they had never stopped performing legal abortions, they had also performed “therapeutic abortions” and wanted to guarantee that they would not be prosecuted for such acts. During this time, there was a growing acceptance of a woman's mental aptitude to justify performing therapeutic abortions and a psychiatric diagnosis could validate the procedure.

In the political arena, 1959–73, the prevalence of the word abortion in campaign and electoral rhetoric grew from a non-issue to grave concern. While the presidency [Page 2]shifted between Democrats and Republicans, Democrats controlled both houses of Congress. During the Nixon administration, the Supreme Court was mixed. Warren Earl Burger, the Chief Justice was appointed by a Republican. The growing Women's Movement with its motto “the personal is the political” was powerful enough to affect the Supreme Court to decide in favor of Roe v. Wade.

A pro-choice demonstration at the Democratic National Convention in New York City in 1974.

From that point forward, both major parties were forced to publicly articulate their positions on the abortion issue. Second and third wave feminists became visible in all aspects of public life.

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