Joshua C. Wilson

The New States of Abortion Politics (eBook, ePUB)

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

The 2014 Supreme Court ruling on McCullen v. Coakley striking down a Massachusetts law regulating anti-abortion activism marked the reengagement of the Supreme Court in abortion politics. A throwback to the days of clinic-front protests, the decision seemed a means to reinvigorate the old street politics of abortion. The Court's ruling also highlights the success of a decades' long effort by anti-abortion activists to transform the very politics of abortion. The New States of Abortion Politics, written by leading scholar Joshua C. Wilson, tells the story of this movement, from streets to legislative halls to courtrooms.

With the end of clinic-front activism, lawyers and politicians took on the fight. Anti-abortion activists moved away from a doomed frontal assault on Roe v. Wade and adopted an incremental strategy—putting anti-abortion causes on the offensive in friendly state forums and placing reproductive rights advocates on the defense in the courts. The Supreme Court ruling on Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt in 2016 makes the stakes for abortion politics higher than ever. This book elucidates how—and why.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Stanford University Press
• Seitenzahl: 128
• Erscheinungstermin: 8. Juni 2016
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781503600539
• Artikelnr.: 48420686

Autorenporträt

Joshua C. Wilson is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Denver. He is the author of The Street Politics of Abortion: Speech, Violence, and America's Culture Wars (Stanford, 2013).

Inhaltsangabe

1. Violence, Law, and Abortion Politics
2. From Allies to Alliances in the Antiabortion Movement
3. The Past as the Possible Future of Abortion Politics

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Contents and Abstracts
1Violence, Law, and Abortion Politics
chapter abstract
This chapter provides a broad and detailed view of contemporary abortion
politics. It specifically uses Massachusetts's turbulent history of
attempts to regulate antiabortion activism in front of clinics to introduce
McCullen v. Coakley-the book's central Supreme Court case-and uses it to
expose the more contentious and visible phase of abortion politics. It goes
on to explore the assent and effect of professional elites and the
complexity of abortion politics that exists even within a state that many
simply assume to be liberal and in support of abortion rights.
2From Allies to Alliances in the Antiabortion Movement
chapter abstract
The second chapter focuses on the importance of professional legal
resources for the contemporary politics of abortion. If a movement is going
to be successful in court, it needs to work to develop or acquire and
support premier legal talent. The New Christian Right, inclusive of the
antiabortion movement, has rapidly and effectively done so as evidenced by
a close examination of the lawyers and legal organizations involved in
McCullen v. Coakley.
3The Past as the Possible Future of Abortion Politics
chapter abstract
The third and final chapter places McCullen v. Coakley within the broader
contexts of both the history and contemporary state of abortion politics in
order to discuss the possible future of the broader conflict. The step back
taken in this chapter allows one to better understand why abortion is a
contentious issue in the United States, and how the judiciary generally,
and the United States Supreme Court specifically, have been the formative
engines of abortion politics. The essay's discussion up through Texas House
Bill 2 and the resulting Supreme Court case of Whole Woman's Health v
Hellerstedt help demonstrate that although the specifics change over time,
the established fundamentals of the political process will likely continue
to dictate the future forms of the conflict.