Volume 36, Number 11 · June 29, 1989
The Great Abortion Case
By Ronald Dworkin
No judicial decision in our time has aroused as much sustained public outrage, emotion, and physical violence, or as much intemperate professional criticism, as the Supreme Court's 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, which declared, by a seven to two majority, that women have a constitutionally protected right to abortion in the early stages of pregnancy.[1] For sixteen years anti-abortion groups and political conservatives have campaigned with single-minded conviction to reverse that decision. They proposed without success a series of constitutional amendments, sponsored unsuccessful bills asking Congress to declare that a fetus's life begins at conception, persuaded President Reagan to appoint anti-abortion judges to the federal courts, waged single-issue political campaigns against candidates who support a right to abortion, and disrupted and bombed abortion clinics.[2] The public at large is divided in different ways about different aspects of the abortion issue. A Los Angeles Times national survey reported that 61 percent of Americans think abortion morally wrong—57 percent think it murder—and yet 74 percent nevertheless believe that 'abortion is a decision that has to be made by every woman for herself.'
Feature, 6815 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |