into the next century. Both the Democratic and the
Republican Parties took positions on abortion as
part of their respective party platforms, despite the
fact that the membership of each political party was
no more in agreement over the issue than was the
Bonfire of the Vanities, The
State and Local Politics The conflict over abortion
existed at the state as well as at the federal level.
Groups opposed to legal abortion supported local
and state efforts to limit abortion rights, even if they
could not ban the practice outright. State legisla-
tures passed laws requiring parental notification for
minors seeking abortions, as well as attempting to
legislate men’s involvement in the decision. Oppo-
nents and advocates of legal abortion continued to
battle each other in state legislatures, in state and
federal courts, and even in the streets as each side
marched and demonstrated. Despite polls showing
that most Americans favored a middle ground on
abortion, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Con-
nor noted that the 1973 decision was “on a collision
course with itself.”
The close of the decade saw the Supreme Court
hearing arguments inWebster v. Reproductive Health
Services(1989). The case started with the passage of
a 1986 Missouri law asserting that life begins at
conception and forbidding doctors or hospitals to
perform abortions if they received state funds. The
law constituted a major test ofRoe v. Wadebefore a
more conservative Court largely shaped by Presi-
dent Reagan’s appointees and therefore opposed to
abortion rights. Although the Court did not reverse
Roe v. Wade, it allowed states to place restrictions on
abortion. In an evenly divided Court, Justice O’Con-
nor provided the swing vote to maintainRoe v. Wade.
Canada and Abortion Canada passed a law in 1969
permitting abortion only when the health of the
mother was in danger. In the 1970’s, opposition to
this law developed, and in 1988’sHer Majesty the
Queen v. Morgentalerdecision, the Supreme Court of
Canada declared the law to be unconstitutional. The
court determined that any attempt to force a woman
to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term violated the
right to security of the person guaranteed by Can-
ada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The court left
it to the legislature to craft a new law regulating abor-
tion, and in 1989 the government submitted such a
bill. It passed the House of Commons but was de-
feated in the Senate. Thus, as the 1980’s ended, Can-
ada became one of the few nations in which abortion
was completely unregulated by law. As in the United
States, advocacy groups supporting and opposing le-
gal abortion continued to operate, and liberal and
conservative political candidates took positions on
the issue. Abortion, however, tended to be a less cen-
tral issue in Canadian culture and politics than it was
in American culture and politics.
Impact The U.S. struggle over abortion rights in
the 1980’s was largely defined by the Court’s deci-
sion inRoe v. Wade. The pro-choice movement
sought to protect that decision, in part by focusing
on the attitude toward abortion rights of any judicial
nominee. Pro-life activists took a different ap-
proach: While agreeing that judges were important
to their cause, they also sought to circumvent consti-
tutional issues by attacking abortion rights on a
financial, public policy level. In this endeavor, the
pro-life movement found a crucial ally in President
Reagan. In 1984, Reagan refused foreign aid to any
organization that performed or facilitated abor-
tions. In 1987, he extended the policy to domestic
organizations, announcing that no federal funds
would be given to any organization that helped preg-
nant women obtain abortions—or even to organiza-
tions that mentioned abortion as an option. Thus, by
the end of the decade, a disparity had developed be-
tween America’s rich and poor women. Both nomi-
nally had the right to terminate their pregnancies,
but in practice it was much more difficult for poor
women to exercise that right.
The Canadian experience was quite different. It
took almost the entire decade for Canada’s growing
pro-choice movement to achieve victory in the
courts. While the victory came fifteen years later
than it had in the United States, however, the Cana-
dian right to abortion remained undiluted for far
longer than did the American right. Indeed, by the
beginning of the twenty-first century, Canada re-
mained one of the few nations in the world without
any restrictions on abortion in its criminal code.
Further Reading
Bennett, Belinda, ed.Abortion. Burlington, Vt.: Ash-
gate/Dartmouth, 2004. Compilation of articles
published between 1971 and 2002 in medical and
political journals; covers the full range of scien-
tific, legal, moral, and religious issues related toAbortion.
Abortion
Fried, Marlene Garber, ed.From Abortion to Reproduc-4 Abortion The Eighties in America