Abstract
Although abortion has bitterly divided mil lions of Americans for decades, there has hardly been any academic disagreement over the nature of the controversy. A consen sus quickly developed around Kristin Luker's classic study, Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood, first published in 1984.2 No other work on abortion politics has approached its influence. As of this writing it has been cited over one thousand times, far more than any other essay or book on abortion.3 One of Luker's most interesting argu ments is that the pro-life movement is not what it appears because its deepest motives have nothing to do with the fetus. Instead, citizens are drawn to pro-life activism, according to Luker, because legalized abor tion is a referendum on their traditional view of motherhood. Abortion devalues women's traditional roles as homemakers
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