THE POLITICS OF ABORTION AND THE RISE OF THE NEW RIGHT JENNIFER DONNALLY A ...

312 Pages·2013·2.14 MB·English

by  Jennifer Donnally

THE POLITICS OF ABORTION AND THE RISE OF THE NEW RIGHT

JENNIFER DONNALLY

A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in
partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the
Department of History.

Chapel Hill
2013

Approved by:

Jacquelyn Dowd-Hall

Johanna Schoen

Jim Leloudis

Benjamin Waterhouse

Molly Worthen
© 2013
Jennifer Donnally
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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ABSTRACT

JENNIFER DONNALLY: “The Politics of Abortion and the Rise of the New Right”
(Under the direction of Jacquelyn Hall).

The Politics of Abortion and the Rise of the New Right argues that pro-life activists
were pivotal to both the demise of the liberal New Deal Coalition and the rise of a
conservative Reagan Coalition in the United States between 1973 and 1983. Prior to Roe v.
Wade, the anti-abortion movement was single-issue. It sought to defend criminal abortion
statutes and Republicans, Democrats, liberals and conservatives made up the small and
predominantly Roman Catholic movement. After Roe v. Wade, the United State’s largest
anti-abortion organization, the National Right to Life Committee, pursued two campaigns to
overturn the decision. One campaign sought to establish fetal personhood through a Human
Life Amendment. This amendment granted fetuses the rights of citizenship from the
moment of conception. Fetal personhood was a new legal concept that would revolutionize
American law, science, medicine and society. The other campaign sought to restrict abortion
access within the confines of the decision, narrowing the window in which a legal abortion
could be performed with the ultimate goal of making most abortions illegal. This campaign
drew on a longer history of abortion opposition that sought to regulate women’s bodies and
sexuality.
The two campaigns generated a heated conflict over strategy within the National
Right to Life Committee that propelled the movement’s growing alliance with conservatives
mobilizing in the Republican Party. Using the Human Life Amendment as a campaign litmus
test, one group created a single-issue anti-abortion voter constituency and used that
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constituency to polarize the American party system. When the Republican Party endorsed the
Human Life Amendment in 1976, these activists then sought to shift Roman Catholics and
Evangelical Protestants out of the Democratic Party and into the Republican Party. The other
pro-life activists championed abortion restrictions that regulated underage, single and poor
women’s sexual practices and mobilized previously apolitical conservative Protestants. These
two competing pro-life groups united to cut federal funding of abortions for women on public
assistance. Through this anti-funding campaign, pro-lifers championed an anti-government
ethos and defended their rights as taxpayers, paving the way for the social and economic
conservative alliance that characterized the winning Reagan coalition of 1980.

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For Dad,
The best listener and most humble person I know

For Mom,
Thanks for your curiosity, open mind and willingness to talk to anyone

For my Family,
For keeping me grounded
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

History is a collaborative enterprise. I could not have completed this dissertation
without the support and assistance of the individuals, communities and institutions I
encountered at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and as I traversed across the
United States completing research.
To the people in my graduate school home base of Chapel Hill, thank you. Jacquelyn
Hall was a skilled adviser and brilliant mentor. Her historical knowledge and astute questions
pushed me to become a more critical scholar and better writer. Moreover, she welcomed me
into her larger family of scholars, grounding me in an active and engaged community that has
carried me through graduate school. Johanna Schoen has given me constant encouragement,
ensuring me of the importance of my work at every turn. Her helpful comments trimmed the
fat I could not see in each chapter, leaving more polished narratives and better articulated
arguments. Ben Waterhouse engaged in a productive three-year dialog over the nature of
American conservatism with me. In the midst of those conversations and emails, I found my
own voice. Jim Leloudis asked timely questions that either sent me in the right direction or
steered me back on course. Molly Worthen shared her keen understanding of religious
history and pushed me to think big.
It is hard to imagine this project without the communities of UNC graduate students
who have supported me. To the graduate students and staff at the Southern Oral History
Program, thank you for creating a collaborative environment where I could pursue related
research projects and debate oral history methodology. A special shout out to Joey Fink,
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Cynthia Greenlie, Sarah McNamara and Jessie Wilkerson for their friendships and their work
on the Long Women's Movement. Our conversations about women's social and political
activism have enriched my life and my work. The members of the Working Group in
Feminism and History have inspired and informed me throughout my graduate school career.
To my study partner Tim Cupery, thanks for being there to answer "Does this sound right?"
more than I care to admit. Finally to my writing partner Cecelia Moore, I don't know if I
would have finished the dissertation had we not joined forces. You saw the promise in lousy
drafts and were an island of calm for me in the rush to finish. I treasure your friendship and
your wisdom. Thanks to Melody Ivins for revising the work in its final stages.
I am deeply indebted to the pro-life activists who agreed to oral interviews. They
gave of their time and memories in order to document and record their movement and its
contributions to American politics. While there are too many interviewees to personally
acknowledge each one, I want to specially thank community gatekeepers and those who
provided key insights into my dissertation. David Gittrich of Kansans for Life and Anne Fox
of Massachusetts Citizens for Life connected me to activists in their respective states and set
up interviews. Mr. Gittrich and Mrs. Fox also gave fabulous interviews explaining the nuts
and bolts of pro-life organizing and coalition building. Alan Weldon first revealed the hard
line/incremental strategy divide within the movement that is at the heart of this dissertation.
Daniel Becker helped clarify this divide in the contemporary movement. Prior to her death,
Mildred Jefferson discussed the National Right to Life Committee's early years and her own
leadership choices that resulted in the pro-life Republican Party alliance. Her reflections on
race and gender were also essential to understanding the movement's political trajectory.
Eleanor Rafferty and Catherine Davis went on record discussing their confrontations with
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conservative men while expressing their frustration with sexism within the movement.
Thomas Connelly and Richard Carey helped explain the role of clinic protests in creating
movement consensuses. Thank you.
Multiple grants and fellowships have supported my research and writing. Thanks to
the generosity of Doris G. Quinn foundation and the American Association of University
Women, I was able to spend the last two years focusing on writing. Grants from the Gerald
Ford Presidential Library, Schlesinger Library, the Sophia Smith Collection and the Robert J.
Dole Archives funded both my research and extended stays in Ann Arbor, Massachusetts and
Kansas. Oral history grants from the Center for the Study of the American South at UNC and
the Schlesinger Library funded over forty interviews. The University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill awarded me an Off Campus Research Fellowship for one semester and the
Sexuality Studies Program funded my research in Wichita, Kansas. Archivists and librarians
also provided invaluable help throughout. A special thank you for Kathryn Jacobs at
Schlesinger Library for working with me to deposit Mildred Jefferson’s papers and for giving
me early access to them. I would like to also acknowledge Mass Choice for allowing me
access to their closed records. Finally, Sr. Theresa of the Sisters for Life supervised my
weeklong visit at the Joseph Stanton Human Life Issues Library giving valuable time so that
I could complete my research there.
A huge thanks goes to my family and friends. Through all the trials and tribulations,
you have sustained me and reminded me what is important. To the Schustermans and
Easterdays, thanks for being a second family to me and all your encouragement. Most of all
to my parents, I couldn’t ask for better or more supportive parents or role models. You have
been there every step of the way, cheering me on. I couldn’t have done it without you.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x

INTRODUCTION
“Trying to Pick up the Pieces” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

CHAPTER ONE:
“The Disqualifying Issue” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

CHAPTER TWO:
“Defend Edelin, Defend Your Rights” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

CHAPTER THREE:
“The Right to Life Revolution” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

CHAPTER FOUR:
“This is War!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

CHAPTER FIVE:
“The Split” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

CONCLUSION:
“Personhood is the Pro-Life Battleground of the 21st Century” . . . . . . . . . . 276

BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
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LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

DIAGRAM 1
“Effect of HLA on Birth Control Devices and Abortion Methods”. . . . . . . . . . . . 39

DIAGRAM 2
“Pro-Life Divisions, October 1981 to September 1982” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262

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