The Abortion Controversy: A Documentary History

This collection brings together for the first time the key primary documents in the history of the abortion controversy in the United States. Organized by historical period, these 92 documents tell the story of this highly charged issue. An explanatory introduction geared to the needs of high school and college students accompanies each document. The collection emphasizes the political and social aspects of the debate, and many voices and conflicting views resound--in congressional hearings, Supreme Court decisions, government reports, party platforms, position papers, statutes, biographical accounts, and news stories. The heart of the work is the drama of Roe v. Wade--the cases that led to it, the Supreme Court decision and dissenting opinions, the reaction in Congress, public opinion, political consequences, and the most recent court tests. The work is divided into five sections: Part I covers the historical period from its European inception until the beginning of the reform movement in the United States in the 1960s. Part II looks at the developments in 1960-1972 that led to the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade in 1973. Part III focuses on Roe v. Wade and the reaction to the decision. Part IV, The Battlelines Are Drawn, 1974-1980, describes the political battles over abortion in the 1970s. Part V includes documents from the Reagan/Bush administrations and ends with the beginning of the Clinton administration in 1993. Each chapter includes a list of suggested readings. The book concludes with a chronology of events in the abortion controversy and a list of decisions of the United States Supreme Court relating to abortion. The collection will be especially useful for high school, junior college, and college students, and for public libraries.

Series Foreword Introduction Before 1960 The Early History of Abortion The Common Law A Short History of Abortion Policy in the United States: The Historians' Brief The Medical Crusade against Abortion (1840-1880) Criminal Abortion Laws The Legal Prohibition of Contraception Signs of Change (1940-1960) The Abortion Reform Movement (1960-1972) The Bad Old Days The National Organization for Women Two Reformers: Lawrence Lader and Patricia Maginnis Mounting a Constitutional Attack on State Abortion Laws Task Force Report on Family Law and Policy American Women, 1968 Feminist The Thalidomide Scare and the German Measles Epidemic Concern about Population Pressures The Medical Profession: New Medical Techniques California Philosophical Arguments for and against the Liberalization of Abortion Laws The 1973 Abortion Cases The Constitutional Provisions: Liberty, Privacy, and the Ninth Amendment The Fourteenth Amendment Griswold v. Connecticut and the Right to Privacy How the Cases Got Started Inside the Court The Cases: Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton Doe v. Bolton: The Companion Case Public Reaction Reaction in Congress The Law Professors The Battle Lines Are Drawn (1974-1980) Missouri Passes a Restrictive Statute Parental Consent and the Rights of Minors State Cut Off Funding for Elective Abortions Legislative Attempts by Congress to Limit Abortion The Edelin Case (1975) A Human Life Amendment Hearing on Two Constitutional Amendments before the Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments on the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, 1974-1975 The Report of the United States Commission on Civil Rights on the Human Life Amendments (1975) Religious Groups Enter the Political Fray Fundamentalist Chruches Become Involved in Politics Abortion Becomes an Issue in Presidential Politics, 1976-1977 The Reagan and Bush Administration and Beyond (1980-) Republican and Democratic Platform Statements on Abortion and the Selection of Judges (1980-1992) Congress Deliberates The Human Life Bill (1981) The Freedom of Choice Bill (1992) Packing the Supreme Court Abortion Decisions by the Reagan-Bush Supreme Court, 1983-1992 Abortion Clinic Violence Health Effects of Abortion on Women: the Koop Report, 1989 The Import Ban on a New Abortifacient Drug, RU-486 Epilogue: 1993 and After Appendix A: Major Supreme Court Decisions Related to Abortion, 1973-1992 Appendix B: Chronology of Events in the Abortion Controversy Index