Abortion in the United States

==Positions of political parties==
After ''Roe'', there was a national political realignment surrounding abortion. The [[abortion-rights movement in the United States]] initially emphasized the national policy benefits of abortion, such as smaller welfare expenses, slower population growth, and fewer illegitimate births. The abortion-rights movement drew support from the [[population control movement]], [[Feminism in the United States|feminists]], and [[environmentalists]]. Anti-abortion advocates and civil-rights activists accused abortion-rights supporters of intending to control the population of racial minorities and the disabled, citing their ties to [[Racial segregation in the United States|racial segregationists]] and [[Eugenics in the United States|eugenicist]] legal reformers. The abortion-rights movement subsequently distanced from the population control movement, and responded by taking up choice-based and rights-oriented rhetoric similar to what was used in the ''Roe'' decision.<ref>{{cite book|last=Ziegler|first=Mary|author-link=Mary Ziegler|date=2015|title=After Roe: The Lost History of the Abortion Debate|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=es7eCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA98|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|publisher=Harvard University Press|pages=36, 98|isbn=9780674736771|access-date=May 9, 2022|archive-date=May 25, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220525052751/https://books.google.com/books?id=es7eCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA98|url-status=live|via=Google Books}}</ref> Opponents of abortion experienced a political shift. The Catholic Church and the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]] supported an expansive [[welfare state]], wanted to reduce rates of abortion through prenatal insurance and federally funded day care, and opposed abortion at the time of ''Roe''. Afterwards, the [[anti-abortion movement in the United States]] shifted more to Protestant faiths that saw abortion rights as part of a [[Modern liberalism in the United States|liberal]]-heavy agenda to fight against, and became part of the new [[Christian right]]. The Protestant influence helped make opposition to abortion part of the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]]'s platform by the 1990s.<ref>{{cite news|last=Elving|first=Ron|date=May 8, 2022|title=The leaked abortion decision blew up overnight. In 1973, ''Roe'' had a longer fuse|publisher=NPR|url=https://www.npr.org/2022/05/08/1097118409/the-leaked-abortion-decision-blew-up-overnight-in-1973-roe-had-a-longer-fuse|access-date=May 10, 2022|archive-date=May 9, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220509224349/https://www.npr.org/2022/05/08/1097118409/the-leaked-abortion-decision-blew-up-overnight-in-1973-roe-had-a-longer-fuse|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|last=Williams|first=Daniel K.|date=May 9, 2022|title=This Really Is a Different Pro-Life Movement|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/05/south-abortion-pro-life-protestants-catholics/629779/|access-date=May 10, 2022|magazine=The Atlantic|archive-date=May 10, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220510043840/https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/05/south-abortion-pro-life-protestants-catholics/629779/|url-status=live}}</ref> Republican-led states enacted laws to restrict abortion, including abortions earlier than ''Casey''{{'}}s general standard of 24 weeks.<ref name="Thomson-DeVeaux 2022"/>

Into the 21st century, although members of both [[major U.S. political parties]] come down on either side of the issue, the Republican Party is often seen as being [[anti-abortion]], since the official party platform opposes abortion and considers fetuses to have an inherent right to life. [[Republicans for Choice]] represents the minority of that party. In 2006, pollsters found that 9% of Republicans favor the availability of abortion in most circumstances.<ref name="zogby1">{{cite web|url=http://www.zogby.com/search/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1060|url-status=dead|title=Support for Abortion in Sharp Decline|publisher=Zogby|date=January 23, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080603220555/http://www.zogby.com/search/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1060|archive-date=June 3, 2008|access-date=July 28, 2022}}</ref> Of [[Republican National Convention]] delegates in 2004, 13% believed that abortion should be generally available, and 38% believed that it should not be permitted. The same poll showed that 17% of all Republican voters believed that abortion should be generally available to those who want it, while 38% believed that it should not be permitted.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/politics/20040829_gop_poll/2004_gop_results.pdf|title=The New York Times/CBS News Poll 2004 Republican National Delegate Survey (Q29)|work=The New York Times|date=August 29, 2004|access-date=July 28, 2022}}</ref> The Republican Party was supportive of abortion rights prior to [[1976 Republican National Convention]], at which they supported an anti-abortion constitutional amendment as a temporary political ploy to gain more support from Catholics; this stance brought many more [[Social conservatism in the United States|social conservatives]] into the party resulting in a large and permanent shift toward support of the anti-abortion position.<ref name=Williams_GOP_history>{{cite journal|last=Williams|first=Daniel|date=January 1, 2011|title=The GOP's Abortion Strategy: Why Pro-Choice Republicans Became Pro-Life in the 1970s|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/461985/summary|journal=Journal of Policy History|volume=23|issue=4|pages=513–539|doi=10.1017/S0898030611000285|access-date=March 3, 2021|publisher=Cambridge University Press|s2cid=154353515|quote=When the Republican national convention convened in Kansas City in 1976, the party's pro-choice majority did not expect a significant challenge to their views on abortion. Public opinion polls showed that Republican voters were, on average, more pro-choice than their Democratic counterparts, a view that the convention delegates shared; fewer than 40 percent of the delegates considered themselves pro-life. The chair of the Republican National Committee, Mary Louise Smith, supported abortion rights, as did First Lady Betty Ford, who declared ''Roe v. Wade'' a 'great, great decision.' Likewise, Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, who had taken a leading role in the fight for abortion rights in New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s, was solidly pro-choice. Even some of the party's conservatives, such as Senator Barry Goldwater, supported abortion rights. But in spite of the Republican Party's pro-choice leadership, the GOP adopted a platform in 1976 that promised an antiabortion constitutional amendment. The party's leadership viewed the measure as a temporary political ploy that would increase the GOP's appeal among traditionally Democratic Catholics, but the platform statement instead became a rallying cry for social conservatives who used the plank to build a religiously based coalition in the GOP and drive out many of the pro-choice Republicans who had initially adopted the platform. By 2009, only 26 percent of Republicans were pro-choice. }}</ref> The Democratic Party platform considers abortion to be a woman's right. [[Democrats for Life of America]] represents the minority of that party. In 2006, pollsters found that 74% of Democrats favor the availability of abortion in most circumstances.<ref name="zogby1"/> Of [[Democratic National Convention]] delegates in 2004, 75% believed that abortion should be generally available, and 2% believed that abortion should not be permitted. The same poll showed that 49% of all Democratic voters believed that abortion should be generally available to those who want it, while 13% believed that it should not be permitted.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/politics/20040724poll/20040724_delegates_poll_results.pdf|title=The New York Times/CBS News Poll 2004 Democratic National Delegate Survey (Q29)|work=The New York Times|date=July 25, 2004|access-date=July 28, 2022}}</ref>

The position of [[U.S. third political parties]] and other [[U.S. minor political parties]] is diverse. The [[Green Party (United States)|Green Party]] supports legal abortion as a woman's right. While abortion is a contentious issue and the Maryland-based [[Libertarians for Life]] opposes the legality of abortion in most circumstances, the [[Libertarian Party (United States)|Libertarian Party]] platform (2012) states that "government should be kept out of the matter, leaving the question to each person for their conscientious consideration."<ref>[http://www.lp.org/platform National Platform of the Libertarian Party, 1.4 Abortion], adopted in Convention, May 2012.</ref> The issue of abortion has become deeply politicized. In 2002, 84% of state Democratic platforms supported the right to having an abortion while 88% of state Republican platforms opposed it. This divergence also led to [[Christian right]] organizations like [[Christian Voice (USA)|Christian Voice]], [[Christian Coalition of America]], and [[Moral Majority]] having an increasingly strong role in the Republican Party. This opposition has been extended under the Foreign Assistance Act; in 1973, [[Jesse Helms]] introduced an amendment banning the use of aid money to promote abortion overseas, and in 1984 the [[Mexico City policy]] prohibited financial support to any overseas organization that performed or promoted abortions. The policy was revoked by President [[Bill Clinton]] and subsequently reinstated by President [[George W. Bush]].<ref name=":3">{{cite news|date=January 23, 2017|title=What is the Mexico City Policy?|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-is-the-mexico-city-policy/|access-date=June 27, 2022|work=CBS News}}</ref> President [[Barack Obama]] overruled this policy by Executive Order on January 23, 2009,<ref>{{cite web|last=Obama|first=Barack|date=January 23, 2009|title=Statement of President Barack Obama on Rescinding the Mexico City Policy|url=https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/statement-president-barack-obama-rescinding-mexico-city-policy|access-date=June 27, 2022|publisher=[[Whitehouse.gov|The White House]]}}</ref> and it was reinstated on January 23, 2017, by President [[Donald Trump]].<ref name=":3"/> On January 28, 2021, President [[Joe Biden]] signed a Presidential Memorandum that repealed the restoration of Mexico City policy and also called for the United States Department of Health and Human Services to "suspend, rescind or revoke" restrictions made to [[Title X]].<ref name="torestore">{{cite web|date=January 28, 2021|title=Memorandum on Protecting Women's Health at Home and Abroad|url=https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/28/memorandum-on-protecting-womens-health-at-home-and-abroad/|access-date=January 31, 2021|publisher=The White House}}</ref>