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The Politics of Medical Necessity in American Abortion Debates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 April 2012

Daniel Skinner
Daniel Skinner
Affiliation:
Capital University
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Abstract

As anti-choice adherents have transitioned from a scattered movement in the early twentieth century to an organized political interest group in recent decades (Mohr 1978), American abortion politics has moved to medical rather than political ground. Accordingly, advocates of safe, legal abortion have become mired in interpretative debates over abortion's medical necessity rather than its political value. To be sure, this turn was not the product of a strategic plan hatched by pro-choice feminists, but was foisted upon them by judicial and legislative developments that created political contexts to which they were forced to react. Nonetheless, these medical necessity debates have obscured—and sometimes eclipsed—more forceful political arguments, replacing self-authorizing political claims—such as political and human rights, choice, reproductive freedom, and bodily autonomy—with arguments for abortion's medical necessity.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Politics & Gender , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , March 2012 , pp. 1 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © The Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association 2012

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