# Anti-Abortion Movement The Anti-Abortion Movement is the contemporary American political-cultural-and-political-organizational coalition substantially-organized to oppose, restrict, and eliminate abortion-rights and abortion-access infrastructure across the post-1970s American political-environment. The movement substantially-emerged in its contemporary form during the 1970s post-*Roe-v.-Wade* political-environment and has been substantially-active across approximately five decades of American political-history; the movement substantially-achieved its principal long-running political-objective with the June 2022 [[Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization]] Supreme Court decision substantially-overturning *Roe v. Wade* (1973). The contemporary post-*Dobbs* movement-infrastructure substantially-continues across state-political-environment legislative-and-judicial-and-political-mobilization-organizational infrastructure-development. The movement matters for the KB substantially across multiple analytical-political-registers: 1. **Principal contemporary American religious-right political-coalition-organizational tradition.** The movement is one of the principal contemporary American religious-right political-coalition-organizational traditions. Tracking the movement is essential to engaging with broader contemporary American religious-right political-coalition-organizational analytical-literature. 2. **Principal historical-political-tradition-foundation for contemporary [[Christian Nationalism]] political-coalition.** The movement is substantially-foundational to the contemporary Christian-Nationalist political-coalition. Tracking the movement is essential to engaging with broader contemporary Christian-Nationalist political-coalition analytical-literature. 3. **[[Segregation Academies]] historical-political-foundation documentary case.** Randall Balmer's substantial historical-political analytical-work substantially-documents that the contemporary religious-right political-coalition substantially-organized initially around segregation-academies-tax-exempt-status-defense rather than around abortion-rights opposition; the subsequent post-1979 substantially-organizing-around-abortion is one of the principal documented historical-political-development cases in contemporary American political-history. Tracking the movement provides substantial analytical-context for engaging with the broader Balmer historical-political analytical-framework. 4. **Companion to [[Abortion Politics]] (future Concept entry).** This Ideology entry treats the movement-organizational-coalition register; the companion forthcoming Concept entry treats the broader policy-and-legal-and-political-economic-and-cultural-political-environment register. The two entries operate substantially-complementarily. ## Historical Development **Pre-*Roe* (pre-1973).** Substantial pre-*Roe* American Catholic and Protestant religious-political opposition to abortion across substantially-narrow political-coalition-organizational infrastructure. The pre-*Roe* opposition substantially-Catholic-political-coalition-focused; substantially-Protestant-political-coalition substantially-divided across multiple substantively-distinct positions including substantial-portion-permissive positions on abortion. ***Roe v. Wade* (January 1973).** The Supreme Court's 7-2 decision substantially-recognized substantially-broad constitutional-protection for abortion-rights infrastructure under substantially-articulated privacy-rights constitutional-framework. The decision substantially-catalyzed subsequent anti-abortion-movement-organizational development. **Post-*Roe* mobilization (1973-1979).** Substantial post-*Roe* Catholic-political-coalition mobilization through 1973-1979 period. National Right to Life Committee (founded June 1973) substantially-organized as principal contemporary Catholic-political-coalition-organizational infrastructure. Initial substantial-Catholic-and-narrow Protestant-coalition during this period. **Schaeffer-Falwell coalition development (1979).** Substantial 1979 development of broader Protestant-evangelical-coalition political-mobilization against abortion. [[Francis Schaeffer]]'s *Whatever Happened to the Human Race?* (1979) substantially-articulated political-mobilization framework for evangelical-Protestant political-coalition. [[Moral Majority Founding]] (1979) by [[Jerry Falwell]] substantially-organized as principal contemporary evangelical-Protestant political-coalition-organizational infrastructure. The 1979 coalition development substantially-expanded the anti-abortion movement from substantially-narrow Catholic-political-coalition to substantially-broad cross-denominational religious-right political-coalition. **Balmer's historical-political-coalition-foundation framework.** Religious-historian Randall Balmer's substantial historical-political analytical-work substantially-documents that the contemporary religious-right political-coalition substantially-organized initially around [[Segregation Academies]] ([[Bob Jones University]], Christian-academies infrastructure post-*Brown* segregation-academies political-coalition-development) rather than around abortion-rights opposition. The 1978-1979 IRS Bob-Jones-University-tax-exempt-status-revocation political-mobilization substantially-preceded the 1979 anti-abortion-political-coalition-mobilization; the subsequent organizing-around-abortion substantially-functioned as substantially-mainstream-acceptable rhetorical-political-coalition-organizational vehicle for the substantially-segregationist political-coalition-coalition-organizational infrastructure. The Balmer historical-political framework is substantially-controversial within contemporary right-coded political-rhetorical-environment but substantially-supported by substantial documentary-evidence record. **1980s-1990s political-coalition-establishment.** Substantial 1980s-1990s anti-abortion-movement-organizational establishment within mainstream Republican-Party political-coalition. Reagan-era political-coalition substantially-incorporated anti-abortion-movement-organizational infrastructure into Republican-Party political-coalition-organizational-infrastructure. Operation Rescue (1986+) substantially-deployed direct-action political-mobilization infrastructure. Substantial 1990s political-cultural-environment violence-and-harassment infrastructure against abortion-providers (including substantial documented political-violence — David Gunn 1993, John Britton 1994, Barnett Slepian 1998, George Tiller 2009). **Post-*Casey* and partial-birth-abortion-and-restriction political-cultural-environment (1992-2010).** *Planned Parenthood v. Casey* (1992) substantially-modified the post-*Roe* constitutional-framework for abortion-rights; subsequent substantial state-and-federal legislative-restriction infrastructure-development. Substantial Federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act (2003) and *Gonzales v. Carhart* (2007) substantially-restricted abortion-rights infrastructure within continuing post-*Roe* constitutional-framework. **Post-2010 substantial-state-restriction-and-judicial-strategy political-cultural-environment.** Substantial post-2010 state-and-federal-judicial-strategy political-coalition-organizational-and-political-philosophical-development. State-level TRAP (Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers) laws substantially-restricted abortion-rights infrastructure across substantially-Republican-coalition-controlled state-political-environments. [[Federalist Society]] judicial-selection-pipeline infrastructure substantially-developed judicial-personnel substantially-aligned with anti-abortion-movement-organizational political-philosophical-framework. **[[Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization]] (June 2022).** The 5-4 Supreme Court decision substantially-overturned *Roe v. Wade* (1973) and *Planned Parenthood v. Casey* (1992); the decision substantially-eliminated constitutional-protection for abortion-rights infrastructure under post-*Roe* constitutional-framework; the decision substantially-returned abortion-rights regulatory-political-environment to state-political-environment legislative-and-judicial-political-coalition-organizational-and-political-philosophical-development. The decision substantially-represented the principal long-running political-objective achievement for the anti-abortion movement. **Post-*Dobbs* political-cultural-environment (2022-present).** Substantial post-*Dobbs* state-political-environment legislative-and-judicial-and-political-mobilization-organizational infrastructure-development. Substantial-portion-Republican-coalition-controlled state-political-environments have substantially-restricted or substantially-eliminated abortion-rights infrastructure; substantial-portion-Democratic-coalition-controlled state-political-environments have substantially-preserved or substantially-expanded abortion-rights infrastructure. Substantial contemporary political-coalition-and-political-cultural-political-rhetorical environment around contemporary abortion-rights infrastructure. ## Why It Matters for the KB **Principal contemporary American religious-right political-coalition-organizational tradition documentary anchor.** The movement is one of the principal contemporary American religious-right political-coalition-organizational traditions. Tracking the movement is essential to engaging with broader contemporary American religious-right political-coalition-organizational analytical-literature. **Principal historical-political-tradition-foundation for contemporary [[Christian Nationalism]] political-coalition documentary anchor.** The movement is substantially-foundational to the contemporary Christian-Nationalist political-coalition. Tracking the movement is essential to engaging with broader contemporary Christian-Nationalist political-coalition analytical-literature. **[[Segregation Academies]] historical-political-foundation documentary case.** Randall Balmer's substantial historical-political analytical-work substantially-documents the 1978-1979 IRS Bob-Jones-University-tax-exempt-status-revocation political-mobilization as substantial pre-condition for subsequent anti-abortion-political-coalition-mobilization. Tracking the case is essential to engaging with broader contemporary American religious-right political-coalition-foundation analytical-literature. **[[Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization]] (2022) substantial-political-objective-achievement documentary case.** The June 2022 *Dobbs* decision substantially-represented the principal long-running political-objective achievement for the anti-abortion movement after approximately five decades of substantial political-coalition-organizational-and-political-philosophical-development. Tracking the case is essential to engaging with broader contemporary American political-cultural-political-environment analytical-literature. ## See Also - [[Roe v. Wade]] — the principal pre-*Dobbs* constitutional-protection decision - [[Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization]] — the principal post-*Dobbs* constitutional-overturn decision - [[Moral Majority Founding]] — the principal contemporary American religious-right-political-coalition-organizational founding-event - [[Segregation Academies]] — the substantial historical-political-foundation case (Balmer framework) - [[Religious Liberty]] — adjacent contemporary religious-right political-philosophical-framework - [[Movement Conservatism]] — adjacent political-organizational-tradition - [[Christian Nationalism]] — the broader contemporary Christian-Nationalist political-coalition-and-political-philosophical-tradition - [[Christian Reconstructionism]] — adjacent contemporary Christian-Reconstructionist political-philosophical-tradition - [[Dispensationalism]] — adjacent contemporary Dispensationalist political-philosophical-tradition - [[Quiverfull]] — adjacent contemporary Quiverfull-pronatalist political-philosophical-tradition - [[Antifeminism]] — adjacent contemporary anti-feminist political-philosophical-tradition - Abortion Politics *(future Concept entry — Batch E)* — the companion Concept entry treating broader policy-and-legal-and-political-economic-and-cultural-political-environment register