Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Abortion has been legal in the US and in almost all Western European countries since the early 1970s, and in Belgium and Ireland since the early 1990s. Although abortion was legal in the Soviet Union for several years prior to its collapse, abortion politics have subsequently come to the fore in some Eastern European countries (e.g., Poland) as a result of government attempts to restrict it. But abortion is most intensely debated in the US, where legal and congressional initiatives to amend the US Supreme Court's recognition ( Roe v. Wade , 1973) of a woman's legal right to an abortion continue unabated. Abortion activism is pursued by several religious and secular organizations, and abortion politics dominate presidential and congressional elections and debates over judicial appointments. Grassroots efforts to restrict abortion have met with some success, as subsequent Supreme Court decisions have imposed various restrictions on what many observers as well as pro-life activists see as America's comparatively permissive law on abortion. Most notably, the imposition of spousal and parental notification requirements seeks to redress the emphasis on abortion as solely being a woman's right to choose and has sought to recognize the relational context of women's lives while not imposing an undue burden on women's freedom. The issue of late-term abortion is currently one of the most intensely ... log in or subscribe to read full text