Will Reproductive Rights ever be “Just a Part of Women’s Healthcare”?

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One of the statements I have made over and over again in my years working in women’s health care is that abortion and contraception are just another part of what OBGYN doctors provide as health care.

However, the abortion issue has been one of the most divisive political issues in the United States for most of our history. Can you imagine any other healthcare issues, except maybe universal healthcare insurance, causing such conflict?

Political scientists say that attitudes toward abortion in the United States have remained remarkably stable in the decades since the 1973 Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade. And while actual peoples views embrace gray areas far more than the slogan- driven rhetoric around abortion, political scientists don't expect an end of the debate.

According to Ted G Jellen, Ph.D. in Political Science at University of Nevada, Americans attitudes towards abortion have stayed at the same levels since the early 1970s according to social research on the subject, even when other attitudes associated with pro-choice perspectives have increased.

According to the survey organization American National Election Studies (ANES), 15 percent of Americans in 2008 said abortions should never be permitted, only a slightly higher then the 11 percent who said the same in 1972, before Roe v. Wade.
Between 1972 and 1980, when the survey questions remained the same making comparison easier, the numbers barely budged: Between 43 percent and 46 percent of people said abortion should be allowed in the case of danger to the mother's life or health; between 16 percent and 18 percent said abortion should be allowed if a woman would have "personal difficulty" having a child; and between 24 percent and 27 percent said abortion should always be permitted.

So why not agree to disagree and move on? Why do anti-choice groups continue to attempt to legislate issues of personhood for zygotes against all scientific evidence? We would never ban all blood transfusions, organ transplants or other medical procedures based on the fact that some religions find then against their teachings.

"As long as there are really vocal minorities that regard [abortion] as the most important issue in our lifetime, and some of them do, there will be attempts to get it on the agenda," said Morris Fiorina, a political scientist and senior fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
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