Women’s Legal Right in Abortion
Jocelin Olmos
American Political Institutional and Religion 255
Professor Mary Jane O’ Donnell
November 9, 2014
The United States was founded with the perception that everyone was equal. By that they
meant only Christian white men who owned property. Over time these rights were expanded to
include women. Yet, there is a fundamental right that can only apply to women and that is the
right to have an abortion in any state with no exceptions. Women have had a long battle to get
their rights heard nationally. Recent history has shown that through Roe v Wade, the emerging of
Planned Parenthood, Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP) laws, and Christian
groups such as Stand True Pro-Life Outreach both men and women have used religion to limit
the legal power that a women has regarding abortion.
On January 1973 there was a 7 to 2 Supreme Court vote in Roe v Wade. The final verdict
declared Texas’ law on prohibiting a physician to perform an abortion unless it endangered the
woman’s life, unconstitutional. “The court found the Texas statute interfered with a doctor’s
right to pursue the best medical treatment for patients.”1 Physicians to this day are at the
predicament of whether it is in their patient’s best interest to terminate the pregnancy whether it
is due to physical, medical or emotional issues. This verdict caused a national split on people
who opposed abortion (pro-life) and who where in favor for (pro-choice). The reasoning behind
these two ideologies included both science and religion. In a religious standpoint it brought up
the significance of defining when life begins. The verdict not only caused an internal conflict
within the country but it also put forward the idea that the United States was for abortion. This
was a cause for turmoil within the religious community because to kill a human being and the
government not putting criminal charges was a cause for rebellion. Roe v Wade put forward for
religious groups to emerge and try to overturn the verdict.
With the emerging of Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) was initially
opposed by conservative religious groups because they distribute birth control and after the
public support for oral contraceptives they began performing abortions. PPFA now has roughly
nine hundred facilities across the nation. “After the legalization of abortion in 1973 (Roe v
Wade), Planned Parenthood became a target of derision by the pro-life movement.”2 Pro-life
religious groups would set the clinics on fire, bomb and vandalize their walls. These violent
crimes were acted with a religious intent. To kill an unborn human being was a crime on its own
and it was up to the soldiers of God to stop evil. In the early 1900’s there was a big opposition
of birth control because to many religious advocates this would promote promiscuity, and for
couples to have sex before marriage. Immediately states such as New York shut the early birth
control centers because it was illegal to hand out such monstrosities to anyone. The message that
birth control brought was that it was okay to have sex and not have any consequences that it
previously did. A big issue that PPFA brought was how it was funded. Many pro-life advocates
were outraged that their tax money went to these abortion clinics. Yet there was no law that
stated that PPFA was not able to get government funding. PPFA are still medical clinics that
provide a cheaper alternative for contraceptives, STD checkups, and abortions. This brought
upon more organization within the pro-life community to start looking for loopholes to stop
abortion.
As abortion moved forward the pro-life movement along side with lawyers created
Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP) laws to make it more difficult for abortion
clinics to maintain their facilities. The morality behind this public policy instated in many states
was to help preserve the rights for the fetus. The main argument that abortion poses as to why it
should be illegal or not is due to the definition of when life is created. Is it at exact moment of
conception or is it when the baby comes out of the womb. TRAP laws were created to bring
public’s preference to support a pro-life standpoint. In the article TRAP Abortion Laws and
Partisan Political Party Control in The American Journal of Economics and Sociology it
describes what TRAP laws consist of:
TRAP laws take several different forms, but the most onerous are the laws that impose on
abortion provider’s medically unnecessary and burdensome physical plant and personnel
requirements. TRAP physical plant laws impose on abortion providers requirements on
the width of hallways, height of ceilings, doorway widths, counseling room dimensions,
and air circulation rates. TRAP personnel laws mandate what types of medical
professionals must be on staff, the qualifications of various staff members, and assign
certain duties to specific staff members. 3
These types of state laws have unnecessary medical bias but claim that these laws are put for the
safety for the pregnant women and her unborn child. Pro-choices legislators claim that there are
no real medical purposes but instead impose a heavy financial burden for abortion clinics to
abide by the rules. A lot of clinics have had to close down because of the cost of remodeling and
lost of patients due to having to increase cost of abortions to cope with the bills. This affected
many states stopping to perform abortions at a certain gestation period. With late pregnancy
termination there were a lot of laws that required the proper equipment and qualified
professionals incase the abortion went wrong. This was a victory for the religious community
because there the rates of abortion in many states decreased with the new laws. TRAP laws were
created with a religious basis to promote no more abortions in the country.
In the website for Planned Parenthood it states the small print of the laws that determine
if you can get an abortion or not if you’re a minor. In California there is no parental signature
or involvement required. 4But states such as Alaska, Arkansas, and Idaho require giving notice
24-48 hours prior to abortion and/or your parent to give permission for the abortion. These types
of minor consent laws were lobbied by pro-life stating that a minor has no right to do an abortion
without consequences.
An example of how religious conservative groups view abortion is the Stand True prolife outreach with their mission statement:
We exist first and foremost to glorify God. Through the grace of God, we stand for the
protection of human life from the moment of fertilization to natural death. Abortion is the
act of killing a human person and it is always wrong without exceptions… Psalms 40:2
He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a
rock, and established my goings. 5
This mission statement is a how a lot of pro-life advocates view abortion. To get an abortion
means that the people will me in damnation. For eternal life they would have committed a crime
against God’s children. The website has a page where you can donate to help the cause with the
minimum of fifty dollars and an option to monthly take out the same amount from someone’s
credit card. Bryan Kemper the founder also has founded Rock for life, and Pro-Life Day of Silent
Solidarity. He has been an avid advocate especially for the youth to help stop abortion across the
nation. He has spoken in many prestigious universities such as Harvard, Princeton and Notre
Dame. Bryan Kemper is not a part of legislative but he goes to banquets, universities, music
festivals, rallies etc. and he spreads his ideas. This is a form of influence the voting public
because at the end of the day it is the nation that elects the officials that pass the laws. This
conservative group does not agree that rape is an excuse for abortion because it the plan of God
and something good will come out this horrific situation. Also regardless the disease they should
let God take the life away and not partake in taking away a life before its time.
Abortion tackles many uncomfortable ideas especially when presented with graphic
images to describe what it is and the different types. Abortion like many other social issues was
not an issue prior the 19th amendment the right for women to vote. A private manner that was
unheard of because if any women voiced it out loud society would automatically judge them.
America was founded with a religious basis because the founders were religious. The
Constitution does not explicitly state that abortions are illegal but it does state the right to
freedom of speech and protest based on your religion. This is a big loophole in the legal system
because groups such as Stand True can express crude ideas about abortion and government
cannot and will not stop them. Pro-life people can stand outside a clinic and shout out cruel stuff
and site religious ideologies to guilt trip women into having a baby. The biggest debate as stated
before is due to the fact that there is no clear definition of when life begins and the bible is an
example of a group defining when life begins, at the point of conception. When pro-life people
get the financial power they can persuade Congress to make decisions about a women’s body
and find legal loopholes to get it passed. There is still intertwining of religious groups
influencing legislative to stop abortion. Until the Supreme Court steps in and declares TRAP
laws for example unconstitutional across the nation states will continue to find loopholes to limit
women’s rights.
1
2
Quoted on Roe V. Wade. The Social History of Crime and Punishment in America. 2012, 1573
Quoted on Chapman, Roger. 2010. Culture Wars : An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints, and
Voices. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 2010. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost), EBSCOhost
(accessed November 9, 2014), 431
3
Quoted on MEDOFF, MARSHALL H., and CHRISTOPHER DENNIS. 2011. "TRAP
Abortion Laws and Partisan Political Party Control of State Government." American Journal Of
Economics & Sociology 70, no. 4: 951-973. Business Source Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed
November 9, 2014), 955
4
"Parental Consent and Notification Laws." Parental Consent and Notification Laws. Accessed
November 10, 2014. http://www.plannedparenthood.org/health-info/abortion/parental-consentnotification-laws.
5
Mission Statement." Stand True Pro Life Outreach. Accessed November 10, 2014.
http://www.standtrue.com/mission-statement/.
Bibliography
Dennis, Christopher, and Marshall H Medoff. 2011. TRAP Abortion Laws and Partisan Political
Party Control of State Government. The American Journal of Economics and Sociology. 70, no.
4: 951-973.
Gabrielson, Alexis, and Parker Milender. 2013. Abortion. Georgetown Journal of Gender and
the Law. 14, no. 2: 213-425.
2010. Planned Parenthood. Culture Wars: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints, and Voices. .
2012. Roe V. Wade. The Social History of Crime and Punishment in America. .
"Parental Consent and Notification Laws." Parental Consent and Notification Laws. Accessed
November 10, 2014. http://www.plannedparenthood.org/health-info/abortion/parental-consentnotification-laws.