Abortion Rights And the Backlash - public opinion issue? Posted: 02-14-06 02:08am
I read recently that one of the reasons
why the backlash occurred so heavily in
the us as opposed to other european
nations who legalized abortion around the
same time is because the us defined
abortion as a "right" of a .Woman while
the european nations mostly came to the
decision to allow legal abortions through
referrundum and public opinion. Because
of this, it may have been felt in these
nations that while the public opinion
agreed with legalized abortion today, the
public could change its mind in the future
and criminalize the procedure because it's
not an inalienable right, just a function
of public opinion.
In the us, however, abortion was thought
of as a right which could not be swayed
whenever the public opinion changed.
This seemed to galvanize and act as a
catalyst to abortion rights opponents as
they cried out that the public had no say
in the decision.
My questions are:
do nations in europe still view abortion
as a public opinion issue?
If so, could the status of abortion change
tomorrow if the public opinion changed?
If the us had taken a similar route and
had not expressed a national right to an
abortion, would the other states with
restrictions in the 70's have changed over
time?
