Abortion—Reactionary theocracy rises in America, while declining elsewhere

Abstract

AbstractAbortion suddenly dominated politics when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a half‐century of constitutional protection for reproductive choices. The issue varies around the world but is especially powerful in the United States because Protestant fundamentalists and Catholics cooperated to capture one of America's two major political parties. That Republican Party has now packed the courts. The result is the decision that melded political and religious ideologies into the radical Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. This article contends that anti‐abortion arguments are flawed and that an effective anti‐abortion policy requires a harsh authoritarian, if not totalitarian, government, fueled by misogyny and disregard for human rights. Such policies force pregnant women into what must be described as a condition of slavery. With Dobbs, the restrictions on individual freedom immediately began. There have been significant counter‐reactions, also, such as the referendum in Kansas on August 2, 2022, that overwhelmingly rejected a church‐led effort to strip abortion protections from the Kansas State Constitution.Related ArticlesCarmines, Edward G., Jessica C. Gerrity, and Michael W. Wagner. 2010. “How Abortion Became a Partisan Issue: Media Coverage of the Interest Group‐Political Party Connection.” Politics & Policy 38(6): 1135–58. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747‐1346.2010.00272.x.Doan, Alesha E., and Corinne Schwarz. 2020. “Father Knows Best: ‘Protecting’ Women through State Surveillance and Social Control in Anti‐Abortion Policy.” Politics & Policy 48(1): 6–37. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12337.Medoff, Marshall H. 2010. “State Abortion Policy and the Long‐Term Impact of Parental Involvement Laws.” Politics & Policy 38(2): 193–221. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747‐1346.2010.00235.x.