Tag
Content substantially addressing movement history.
Van Maren recounts the abortion prosecution of British physician Aleck Bourne and its influence on subsequent legal changes. He traces Bourne's later opposition to abortion and links to a longer version published by Canadian Physicians for Life.
Read →Van Maren profiles Monica Miller's decades of pro-life activism and her approach to photographing and burying aborted children. He reflects on her influence on other activists and on a gathering marking fifty years of her work.
Read →Historian Daniel Williams examines disagreements between abortion abolitionists and advocates of incremental legal reform. He places those disagreements in historical context and discusses how abortion pills are changing the movement's challenges.
Read →Andrusko argues that the pro-life movement’s answer to difficult pregnancies should be practical help for mothers rather than abortion. He uses movement history and pregnancy-support examples to contrast what he sees as a life-affirming response with abortion.
Read →Van Maren traces the alliance between Donald Trump and pro-life organizations from the 2016 campaign through the overturning of Roe. He argues that later changes in Trump's positions and the Republican platform represent a retreat from that partnership.
Read →Williams traces the decline of pro-life Democrats and the partisan realignment of abortion politics. He argues that institutional, electoral and ideological changes gradually made opposition to abortion far less viable within the Democratic coalition.
Read →Van Maren recounts Bernard Nathanson's transition from abortion provider to pro-life advocate. The essay emphasizes the role Nathanson attributed to ultrasound footage and the film The Silent Scream in changing his perspective.
Read →Bennett and Hannah Harris discuss the development of abortion pills from a critical pro-life perspective. They also address the Colorado March for Life, billboard vandalism, and their concerns about news coverage.
Read →Williams argues historically that Roe v. Wade was not an unavoidable consequence of twentieth-century political liberalism. He traces competing liberal, religious and legal arguments about abortion to show that the coalition supporting legalized abortion developed contingently.
Read →Williams examines the relationship between early twentieth-century Protestant reform movements and eugenics. He connects that history to later debates about abortion, disability and the moral limits of social reform.
Read →Godsey recalls James Dobson's influence through parenting books, radio broadcasts, and personal encounters at Heartbeat conferences. He credits Dobson with encouraging families and strengthening pregnancy centers, maternity homes, and adoption services.
Read →Miller offers a participant-observer account of federal prosecutions of abortion-clinic protesters and the presidential pardons that followed. She distinguishes clinic blockades from speech alone while defending the activists and criticizing the government's charging decisions.
Read →Maffucci reviews a historical study connecting nineteenth-century women's-rights advocacy with opposition to abortion. She highlights the book's account of reformers who linked women's difficult circumstances to a need for civic, legal, and charitable responses.
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