If it seems as though the anti-abortion movement has gotten more extreme in recent months, that’s because it has.
But it’s not the first time — positions taken by both sides of the abortion debate have ebbed and flowed repeatedly in the 49 years since the Supreme Court declared abortion a constitutional right.
Opponents of abortion and supporters of abortion rights expect that the Supreme Court will soon reverse its 1973 decision Roe v. WadeBoth groups have strongly reacted to this decision. Abortion rights supporters unsuccessfully pushed Congress to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would not only codify abortion rights but also eliminate lots of popular restrictions the court has allowed since 1973, most notably parental involvement laws.
But it’s abortion opponents’ efforts in many conservative states to exclude most exceptions — for rape or incest or to save the life of the mother — that have drawn headlines recently.
These efforts do not seem to have broad appeal. The majority of Americans who support these exceptions are almost as large as those who oppose them. oppose abortion late in pregnancyAccording to opinion polls, it is.
Nonetheless, there are numerous examples of such efforts — going far beyond the banning of abortions after 15 weeks, which is at the crux of the Mississippi lawbeing considered by the Supreme Court. A leaked draft opinion, published last month, suggests that the Supreme Court could use this case to reverse its decision. Roe. Oklahoma has, for example, passed three laws restricting abortion in the past few months. The governor signed the most recent one May 25. bans abortion beginning at fertilizationThis would ban in vitro fertilization and other forms of hormonal contraception. (The Oklahoma bill’s sponsor says that is not the law’s intent.)
During debate in the Oklahoma Senate on the strictest of the bans, Republican Sen. Warren HamiltonHe stated that he did not believe the measure was adequate because it allowed abortions for an ectopic baby, a life-threatening medical emergency when an embryo is developing outside of the uterus.
Some medical professionals have been horrified by this. “The fallopian tube and other places a pregnancy can implant cannot support a pregnancy,” Dr. Iman AlsadenAt a news conference held May 19, OB/GYN and medical director at Planned Parenthood Great Plains,, he spoke to reporters. “If you continue to let these pregnancies happen, there will be no viable baby afterwards. What will happen? [the fallopian tube] will burst and people will bleed to death.”
In the meantime, more state legislatures are considering bans that do NOT include exceptions for life or health of pregnant persons. or for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest. Testifying on her bill in Ohio, GOP state Rep. Jean Schmidt in April told lawmakers that a child resulting from rape would be “an opportunity for that woman, no matter how young or old she is, to make a determination about what she’s going to do to help that life be a productive human being.”
Since the early 1990s, rape and incest exemptions have been accepted as part of most abortion bans. But that was not always true. They were not included in what was known as the Hyde Amendment, a provision that is inserted into federal spending bills each year and which prohibits almost all federal funds from being used for abortion.
The Senate that was more liberal on abortion tried to keep the incest and rape (and health) exemptions intact back then. However, the more conservative House, whose antiabortion efforts had been led by Rep. Henry Hyde of Illinois, forced it to back down. “The Supreme Court had said: ‘You may not impose capital punishment on a rapist. That’s cruel and unusual punishment,’” Hyde said during a 1988 debate over the issue. “But you are saying exterminate. Exterminate this innocently inconvenient residual of the rape.”
1993 Hyde himself put the rape and incest exceptions backThey were included in his eponymous funding ban and have remained there ever since. With Democratic president Bill Clinton in the White House, and large Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate, “I didn’t think the votes were there anymore for a straight ban on abortion funding,” he said at the time. Indeed, at that point, the entire ban was in danger of being dropped, and only Hyde’s parliamentary maneuvering kept the slightly less stringent ban in place.
Politically, abortion bans that make few or no exceptions to the rule are dangerous. The challenger, then-Republican Todd Akin, was expected to defeat incumbent Sen. Claire McCaskill in the 2012 Missouri Senate race. However, he stated in a now-infamous interview that he didn’t support exceptions because women rarely get pregnant as a result of rape. “The female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down,” he said. These comments were disavowed that year by Mitt Romney, a Republican running for the presidency, and Paul Ryan, his running mate. Akin was eventually defeated.
Now, however, it appears that anti-abortion activists are on the verge of being allowed free rein by Supreme Court to ban abortion in any form they want. Activists demand the most comprehensive bans passed by lawmakers. It will be decided by the voters in November if they will vote for that.
HealthBent is a regular feature on Kaiser Health News, offers insight into and analysis of politics and policies from KHN’s chief Washington correspondent, Julie Rovner, who has covered health care for more than 30 years.
KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling KHNThis is one of three major operating programs. KFF(Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed, nonprofit organization that provides information on health issues for the nation.
