How abortion became a political litmus test
(Curtis Compton - AP)
It was a notable political misstep for Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain: in a CNN interview, he remarked that abortion ought to be “a choice that the family or mother has to make.” Those comments forced Cain to spend last week attempting to shore up his anti-abortion credentials—an effort that included endorsing a Constitutional amendment to ban abortion.
It wasn’t always this way: as recently as the 1970s, views on abortion didn’t break down along party lines. As a number of academic studies have pointed out, abortion has been transformed from an incidental political issue to a core litmus test over the past 30 years.
From 1972 to 1980, there was no correlation between voters’ views on abortion and their political affiliation, a 2002 study in the journal Political Behavior found. That meant that a Republican could capture the presidency even with a lengthy track record of supporting abortion rights. Exhibit A for this is President Ronald Reagan. During his tenure as California’s governor in the 1960s, Regan signed some of the nation’s most permissive abortion rights legislation. This came well before Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court case that would require every state to recognize a legal right to abortion.
But as Reagan came into the presidency, the politics of abortion rights were in flux. The Roe decision in 1973 brought more attention to the issue. Evangelical voters, who tend to oppose abortion rights, were gravitating more toward the Republican party. In 1980, both Democrats and Republicans added planks to their national party platforms taking positions on the issue. And as president, Reagan became a staunch opponent of abortion rights. “Today there is a wound in our national conscience,” the president said in his 1986 State of the Union address. “America will never be whole as long as the right to life granted by our Creator is denied to the unborn.” Since then, political scientists argue, the abortion issue has broken sharply on party lines.
To be sure, politicians do not always line up perfectly with their parties on abortion issues: there is a notable contingent of “pro-life Democrats” who oppose access to abortion. But, as far as presidential elections go, abortion has become a key dividing issue and litmus test that candidates must pass.
Tags
The Post Most: BusinessMost-viewed stories, videos and galleries int he past two hours
Blog Contributors
Ezra Klein
Ezra Klein is the editor of Wonkblog and a columnist at the Washington Post, as well as a contributor to MSNBC and Bloomberg. His work focuses on domestic and economic policymaking, as well as the political system that’s constantly screwing it up. He really likes graphs, and is on Twitter, Google+ and Facebook. E-mail him here.
Suzy Khimm
Suzy Khimm covers the budget, economic policy, and financial regulatory reform. Before coming to Washington, she was based in Brazil and Southeast Asia, where she wrote for the Economist, Slate, and the Wall Street Journal Asia. Follow her on Twitter here, and email her here.
Sarah Kliff
Sarah Kliff covers health policy, focusing on Medicare, Medicaid and the health reform law. She tries to fit in some reproductive health and education policy coverage, too, alongside an occasional hockey reference. Her work has appeared in Newsweek, Politico, and the BBC. She is on Twitter and Facebook.
Brad Plumer
Brad Plumer is a reporter focusing on energy and environmental issues. He was previously an associate editor at The New Republic. Follow him on Twitter. Email him here.
