Abortion - Court Cases
...s unresolved which resulted in – at best – uneven availability of abortion throughout the nation. The Supreme Court ruling failed to generate major changes in the number of legal abortions. Prior to the 1973 ruling, significant support of abortion existed in the nation. It wasn’t until after the ruling that those who supported or were indifferent to abortion changed their stand on the issue. The number of legal abortions performed before and after the 1973 decisions showed no significant increases. In fact, the sharpest increase in abortions occurred in 1970 - prior to the Supreme Court ruling. This fact supports the author’s theory that widespread support from public and political audience, not court rulings, are needed to implement abortion rights. Another detriment to abortion rights is state government. After the 1973 rulings, many states passed laws restricting availability of abortions, some states outlawing abortions altogether. The majority of public and private hospitals also refused to perform abortions. As of 1992, only 18 percent of private hospitals and 13 percent of public hospitals provided abortions. Further damage was done to the abortion rights movement with the creation of several anti-abortion interest groups. These pro-life groups marched, lobbied, and protested urging that abortion be made illegal in most or all circumstances. In addition, groups such as Operation Rescue began to adopt violent tactics such as bombings of abortion clinics. Despite the large increase in anti-abortion movements after the 1973 Court ruling, there were some advances abortion rights. After the court’s decisions the number of abortion providers sharply increased. To fill the void hospitals lefts, clinics began opening up in wide numbers to provide abortions on an outpati...