United States abortion-rights movement

Albert Wynn and Gloria Feldt on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court to rally for legal abortion on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade

The United States abortion-rights movement (also known as the pro-choice movement) is a sociopolitical movement in the United States supporting the view that a woman should have the legal right to an elective abortion, meaning the right to terminate her pregnancy, and is part of a broader global abortion-rights movement. The movement consists of a variety of organizations, with no single centralized decision-making body.[1][2][3][4][5]

A key point in abortion rights in the United States was the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, which struck down most state laws restricting abortion,[6][7] thereby decriminalizing and legalizing elective abortion in a number of states. On June 24, 2022, Roe v. Wade was overruled in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.

On the other side of the abortion debate in the United States is the anti-abortion movement (self-described as a “pro-life” movement), which holds the belief that human embryos and fetuses have a right to life, and abortion violates this right and should be outlawed or otherwise restricted. Within this group, many argue that human personhood begins at conception, a position rejected by many abortion rights groups.

  1. ^ Schultz, Jeffrey D.; Van Assendelft, Laura A. (1999). Encyclopedia of women in American politics. The American political landscape (1 ed.). Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 195. ISBN 1-57356-131-2.
  2. ^ Medoff, Marshall H.; Dennis, Christopher (2011-01-01). "Public Preferences, Political Party Control, and Restrictive State Abortion Laws". American Review of Politics. 31: 307–331. doi:10.15763/issn.2374-7781.2010.31.0.307-331. ISSN 2374-779X.
  3. ^ Beckman, Linda J (February 2017). "Abortion in the United States: The continuing controversy". Feminism & Psychology. 27 (1): 101–113. doi:10.1177/0959353516685345. ISSN 0959-3535. S2CID 151395674.
  4. ^ Frederiksen, Brittni; Ranji, Usha; Gomez, Ivette; Published, Alina Salganicoff (2023-06-21). "A National Survey of OBGYNs' Experiences After Dobbs". KFF. Retrieved 2023-12-09.
  5. ^ Moseson, Heidi; Smith, Mikaela H.; Chakraborty, Payal; Gyuras, Hillary J.; Foster, Abigail; Bessett, Danielle; Wilkinson, Tracey A.; Norris, Alison H. (April 2023). "Abortion-Related Laws and Concurrent Patterns in Abortion Incidence in Indiana, 2010–2019". American Journal of Public Health. 113 (4): 429–437. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2022.307196. ISSN 0090-0036. PMC 10003501. PMID 36795983.
  6. ^ Staggenborg, Suzanne (1994). The Pro-Choice Movement: Organization and Activism in the Abortion Conflict. Oxford University Press US. p. 188. ISBN 0-19-508925-1.
  7. ^ Greenhouse, Linda (2010). Before Roe v. Wade: Voices that Shaped the Abortion Debate Before the Supreme Court's Ruling. Kaplan Publishing. ISBN 978-1-60714-671-1. Archived from the original on 2013-01-14. Retrieved 2014-05-05.