Between Two Absolutes
Between Two Absolutes
Public Opinion and the Politics of Abortion
Elizabeth Adell Cook,
Ted G. Jelen,
and Clyde Wilcox
First published 1992 by Westview Press, Inc.
Published 2018 by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright 1992 Taylor & Francis
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Cook, Elizabeth Adell.
Between two absolutes: public opinion and the politics of
abortion / by Elizabeth Adell Cook, Ted G. Jelen, Clyde Wilcox.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8133-8286-6 (cloth) ISBN 0-8133-8287-4 (pbk.)
1. AbortionUnited StatesPublic opinion. 2. Abortion
Political aspectsUnited States. 3. Pro-life movementUnited
States. 4. Pro-choice movementUnited States. 5. Abortion
Religious aspects. 6. Public opinionUnited States. I. Jelen,
Ted G. II. Wilcox, William Clyde. III. Title.
HQ767.5.U5C66 1992
363.4'6'0973dc20 92-25268
CIP
ISBN 13: 978-0-367-01245-8 (hbk)
For Christopher, Elaine, and Robert
This book is an examination of the shape and direction of public attitudes toward abortion. Our motivation in writing this book is based on our belief that, in the last analysis, the abortion controversy will be settled in the court of public opinion. As we write this, the United States Supreme Court has recently upheld certain restrictions on access to legal abortion in the case of Webster v. Missouri Reproductive Services and is considering permitting states to regulate abortion further in the pending case of Casey v. Planned Parenthood. The direction that the Court is taking on this issue is quite clear. State governments will be allowed increasing discretion in regulating abortion and may (in the event of an outright reversal of Roe v. Wade ) be allowed to prohibit the practice entirely. Thus, control of access to abortion is being removed from the federal courts and put into the hands of elected officials such as members of Congress, governors, and state legislators. If one assumes that elected officials are, in some sense, responsive to public opinion, it matters a great deal what ordinary citizens think and believe about the practice of abortion.
We will consider the distinctions made by members of the mass public toward legal abortion and will look closely at the types of people likely to favor or oppose abortion. In addition, considerable attention will be paid to other factors that influence people's abortion attitudes, the role of religion in shaping the abortion debate, and the likely consequences of abortion attitudes for electoral politics in the United States. Although we regard public attitudes toward abortion as interesting in their own right, we will also be concerned with the consequences of abortion politics for American politics generally.
This book is not a treatise on the moral or ethical issues raised by the abortion issue. We have no special insight into questions such as "Is the fetus a person?" "Does legal abortion encourage immoral sexual behavior?" or "Is the abortion right necessary for full female equality?" We will, however, investigate the empirical connections between these beliefs and abortion attitudes. We will consider (for example) the question of whether people who hold traditional conceptions of gender roles are less supportive of legal abortion than people with more "feminist" orientations but will not consider directly the merits of any of the claims made by protagonists in the abortion debate. Similarly, this book is not a work of legal scholarship. We will not evaluate claims about the constitutional basis for an abortion right or the more general right to privacy. Interested readers are referred to our bibliography, which lists a number of excellent works on these and related topics.
Finally, this book is not a work of advocacy. Although we each have our own opinions on the abortion issue, we hope that they do not intrude on this book. We have attempted to present both sides to every point and to interpret the data dispassionately. We will use the terms "pro-life" and "pro-choice" at various points in this volume, although we do not intend these terms to indicate an endorsement of a particular position. Both sides of the abortion debate seem to suspect that the other has the more powerful symbol (life or choice). Moreover, at demonstrations in Washington, D.C., activists on both sides routinely chant that the other side is misnamed. The pro-life forces chant, "Pro-choice, your name's a lie: babies don't choose to die!" while the pro-choice groups shout, "Right to life, your name's a lie, you don't care if women die." Our use of these terms merely indicates our adoption of the name each group has chosen for itself.
The issue of legalized abortion has general implications for the conduct of American politics. Our focus here is limited to public attitudes on abortion, but we hope that our discussion will illuminate these larger issues as well.
we venture some cautious predictions about the future of the debate over legalized abortion and attempt to project the style of abortion politics after a reversal or modification of Roe v. Wade.
Elizabeth Adell Cook
Ted G. Jelen
Clyde Wilcox
A number of people made valuable contributions to this book. Thanks are due to Jennifer Albertson, Ashley Andrus, Mary Bendyna, Mary Cook Garcia, and several anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on earlier drafts of this work. Lara Hewitt, April Morgan, John O'Donnell, and Eric Pages spent long hours in the library searching for reference materials. Carolyn Jeskey helped with the Bibliography, and Roland Gunn constructed the index. Amy Eisenberg, Cindy Hirschfeld, and the Westview staff were enormously helpful in preparing the manuscript. Finally, Seema Shah, Eileen Clark, Jeanne Norris, and Gregory Peck provided invaluable assistance in converting a rather messy manuscript into camera-ready copy.
E.A.C.
T.G.J.
C.W.
1
Abortion and American Politics
In 1991, the residents of Wichita, Kansas, experienced the emotional fervor of the abortion debate firsthand. Members of Operation Rescue, a pro-life group that blockades the entrances of clinics performing abortions, came to Wichita in large numbers. They sat in front of a clinic that performed third-trimester abortions, refusing to let patients pass. Members of pro-choice organizations also came to Wichita to help usher women seeking abortions into the clinics. Federal Judge Patrick Kelly issued an order forbidding the blockades, but they continued.
The city police were needed to maintain order, to escort patients into the clinics, and to arrest the Operation Rescue members and cart them off to jail. Upon release, the pro-life demonstrators again sat in front of the abortion clinic. The Reverend Marion (Pat) Robertson came to encourage the demonstrators, and newly elected pro-life Governor Joan Finney also spoke to the crowds. Traffic slowed on the town's major east-west thoroughfare as drivers watched the action. The city's residents had their normal routines disrupted, and the municipal budget had to absorb the extra costs of police working overtime and additional jail meals. In all, two thousand people were arrested in Wichita over the course of forty-six days.
