The Anti-Abortion Lobby: Power and Limits of a Collective Action Strategy

When the U.S. Supreme Court established a woman's constitutional right to have an abortion in its 1973 decision, nobody expected that this ruling would have far-reaching political implications. Few cases have led to such heated and bitter debate. The politics of abortion have affected every branch and every level of American government. With the increasing influence of the Religious Right within the Republican Party and in American society since the early 1980s, religion and politics have made for "an explosive combination" which may jeopardize the principle of the separation of Church and State. However, if political institutions and institutional opportunities on the one hand, and ideological and discursive strategies on the other have played a critical role in the successes of the anti-abortion movement and contributed to its achievements, they have also determined its limits.