History 4321/CS 401

Roe

October 31, 2005

I. Changing Rationale for University Education

II. Road to Roe

            1. Legal (Connecticut reformers, Yale community, and road to Griswold; disputes about Griswold rationale; Eisenstadt and equal protection rationale; political route—Colorado 1967 law, Beilenson and California abortion law, New York legislation)

            2. Changing Political Mores (women and politics—Smith candidacy, Schroeder and Abzug elections; Schroeder and Hébert; women and public policy—EEOC, Esther Peterson, and end of labor/feminism split; Friedan and NOW; Steinem and Ms.; 1960s sexual revolution; movement toward ERA)

III. Roe

IV. Aftermath of Roe

            1. 1970s (Hyde amendment and question of federal funding; collapse of New Deal coalition—Catholic church and abortion rights, 1978 and 1980 elections; emergence of Christian Right—Falwell’s Moral Majority; Reagan and human life amendment)

            2. 1980s and Beyond (Webster and legal change; “soccer moms” and political effects; Planned Parenthood and resolution of issue”; changing technology; public polarization—right-to-life groups and abortion clinics, federal response, growing power of religious conservatives and 1994 elections; RU-486; partial-birth abortion debate)