Texas’ new anti-abortion law is one of the most restrictive in the developed world. But no surprise that the brouhaha over women’s right to abortion services has nothing to do with honoring their personal autonomy and little to do with fetal mortality. Rather, the fight is grounded in partisan politics.
Historian Heather Cox Richardson provides the background: Abortion has been a part of American history since its inception. States began to criminalize it the 1870s, with the result that by the 1960s there were hundreds of thousands of illegal abortions a year endangering women. Based on sound medical practice, states began to decriminalize pregnancy terminations, leaving the matter to a woman and her doctor. By 1972 (the year Roe v. Wade was handed down), 64% of Americans (59% of Democrats and 68% of Republicans) agreed with this medical model.
The politicization of the medical model began before Roe, however. In 1972, Richard Nixon was up for re-election and he and his advisors were paranoid about his chances of winning—fearful that Democrats and traditional Republicans would take power. Nixon formerly had no problem with the medical model (he directed military hospitals to perform abortions regardless of state law). However, in 1971, seeking to woo Catholic/Democrat and Evangelical voters and split the party’s votes, Nixon reversed course and adopted the Catholic “sanctity of human life” doctrine. Ronald Reagan followed suit.
