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Reproducing Patriarchy: Reproductive Rights Under Siege
by Pam Chamberlain and Jean Hardisty
The Public Eye Magazine - Vo. 14, No. 1

1 For a detailed description of the structure of the political Right in the U.S., see Chip Berlet ed., Eyes Right! Challenging the Right Wing Backlash (Boston MA, South End Press,1995) pp. 24-30.

2 See James C. Mohr, Abortion in America: The Origins and Evolution of National Policy, 1800-1900 (New York, Oxford U. Press, 1978) pp. 46-85.,and Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English, Witches, Midwives and Nurses: A History of Women Healers (Old Westbury, Feminist Press, 1973) pp. 22-30.

3 Andrew H. Merton, Enemies of Choice, Beacon Press, Boston, 1981, p.39.

4 Falwell founded Lynchburg Baptist College in 1971, once a tiny school that has since grown into the 14,000 student Liberty University.

5 For a useful summary of this period in the New Right's history, see Jean Hardisty, Mobilizing Resentment: Conservative Resurgence from the John Birch Society to the Promise Keepers (Boston MA, Beacon Press, 1999) ch. 1.

6 Andrew H. Merton, Enemies of Choice: The Right to Life Movement and its Threat to Abortion (Boston MA, Beacon Press, 1981) p.73.

7 The Body Politic, vol. 5, #2, February 1995, p. 13..

8 Michelle McKeegan, Abortion Politics: Mutiny in the Ranks of the Right (New York, Free Press 1992) pp. 47-8.

9 Ibid. pp. 133-4.

10 Quoted in "The Christian Right World View", Skipp Porteous, Public Eye book review, March 1994, p.8, col. 3.

11 David Duke, My Awakening, Free Speech Press, Covington. LA, 1999, p. 174

12 Firestorm, M. Crutcher, self-published, Lakeville, TX, 1992.

13 Quack the Ripper, Life Dynamics, Inc., Denton. TX, 1998.

14 "Anti-abortionists and White Supremacists Make Common Cause," Loretta Ross, The Progressive, 10/94, pp. 24-25.

15 "When Does Life Begin?" National Right to Life Committee, available:  www.nrlc.org/abortion /wdlb/wdlb.html. 16 April 2000.

16 See Kristin Luker, Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood (Berkeley, CA:U. of California Press, 1984) Ch. 8 and Rosalind P. Petchesky, Abortion and Women's Choice: The State Sexuality and Reproductive Freedom (New York: Longman, 1984) Ch. 7.

17 For an example of a secular argument for traditional family structures based on a conservative analysis of sexual behavior, see the most well known proponent of this view: George F. Gilder, Sexual Suicide (New York, Bantam, 1975).

18 Ronald Reagan, Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1984).

19 Dallas A. Blanchard, The Anti-Abortion Movement and the Rise of the Religious Right (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1994), pp. 51-60.

20 Tom W. Smith, Public Opinion on Abortion, National Opinion Research Center, available:  www.norc.uchicago.edu/library /abortion /htm 13 April 2000.

21 See Elizabeth A. Cook et. al., Between Two Absolutes: Public Opinion and the Politics of Abortion: Boulder, CO, Westview) 1992.

22 Smith, op.cit. These conclusions are based on NORC's analysis of the General Social Survey, which, next to the U.S. Census, is the largest and most wisely used source of sociological data in this country.

23 Full implementation of the Hyde Amendment was thwarted by Federal court decisions and Congressional debate through the 1970s. LAPAC began to exercise its influence over Human Life Amendment votes and eventually even Congressional elections. By 1978 it successfully increased the number of pro-life supporters in Congress by targeting those who opposed the Hyde Amendment, paving the way for the 1980 election of Ronald Reagan. Reagan's judicial appointments to the federal courts were consistently pro-life. Moreover, under him, the process for appointing federal judges changed, and powerful Republican leaders like Strom Thurmond helped control the flow of pro-life legislation. See: The Politics of Abortion, Tatlovich and Daynes, pp. 183-195.

24 These include Sex Respect; Me, My World, My Future; Sexuality, Commitment and family; Family Accountability Communicating Teen Sexuality (FACTS) and Responsible Sexual Values Program.

25 For a comprehensive analysis of the Right's attack on sexuality education, see the forthcoming book by Janice Irvine.

26 See Faye Ginsburg, "Rescuing the Nation," in Rickie Solinger, Abortion Wars, A Half Century of Struggle, 1950-2000 (Berkeley, CA: U. California Press, 1998) pp. 236-7.

27 For a discussion of this shift, see Carol Mason, "From Protest to Retribution: The Guerrilla Politics of Pro-life Violence", New Political Science, Vol. 22, #1, 2000, pp. 11-29.

28 Tanya Melich, The Republican War Against Women (New York: Bantam Books, 1996).

29 See for example,  www.abortiontv.com, www.prolife.com, or www.rockforlife.org.

30 Mission Statement of Cornell Coalition for Life. Available from  www.rso.cornell.edu/ccfl 14 April 2000.

31 Mission Statement of Seamless Garment Network. Available from  www.seamless-garment.org 14 April 2000.

32 See Anne Speckhard and Vincent Rue, "Post-Abortion Syndrome a Growing Health Problem," Journal of Social Issues, 1992, Fall, David C. Reardon, Aborted Women, Silent No More (Chicago: Loyola University Press and Westchester IL Crossway Books, 1987) or Davis Mall and Walter F. Watts, eds. Psychological Aspects of Abortion (Frederick, MD: University Publications of America, 1979).

33 Available from  www.itvs.org/external/WGOOS/WGQUOTES.html 22 February 2000.

34 See: Lucy Williams, "Decades of Distortion: The Right's 30-Year Assault on Welfare," (Somerville, MA: Political Research Associates, 1997), pp. 10-11. See also the Sierra Club ballot initiative.

35 See: Charles Murray, Losing Ground: American Social Policy, 1950-1980 (New York: Basic Books, 1984); George Gilder, Wealth and Poverty (New York: Basic Books, 1981).

36 See: Diane Dujon and Ann Withorn, eds., For Crying Out Loud: Women's Poverty in the United States (Boston: South End Press, 1996); Marsha J. Tyson Darling, "The State: Friend or Foe?" in: Jael Silliman and Ynestra King, eds., Dangerous Intersections: Feminist Perspectives on Population, Environment, and Development (Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 1999), pp. 223-224.

37 Margaret Quigley, "The Roots of the IQ Debate," The Public Eye, vol. IX, no. 1 (March, 1995).

38 Dorothy Roberts, Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction and the Meaning of Liberty (NewYork: Vintage Books, 1997), pp. 89-98.

39 Helen Rodriguez-Trias, "Sterilization Abuse," in Rita Arditti, Pat Brennan, and Steve Cavrak, eds., Science and Social Control (Boston: South End Press, 1980), pp 113-127.

40 Ibid., pp. 96-98.

41 Another important group in the fight against sterilization abuse was the Committee for Abortion Rights and Against Sterilization Abuse (CARASA).

42 See: Gloria I. Joseph and Jill Lewis, eds. Common Differences: Conflicts in Black and White Feminist Perspectives (Boston: South End Press, 1981); ); Angela Davis, Women Race and Class (New York: Vintage, 1983); Elizabeth V. Spelman, Inessential Woman: Problems of Exclusion in Feminist Thought (Boston: Beacon Press, 1988); Loretta Ross, "Raising Our Voices," in: Marlene Gerber Fried, ed., From Abortion to Reproductive Freedom: Transforming a Movement (Boston: South End Press, 1990), pp. 139-143; and Dorothy Roberts, Killing the Black Body, op. cit.

43 See: Betsy Hartmann, Reproductive Rights and Wrongs (Boston: South End Press, 1994; Andy Smith, "Christian Responses to the Population Paradigm," in: Silliman and King, eds., Dangerous Intersections, op. cit., pp. 74-88.

44 See April J. Taylor, "High-Tech, Pop-A-Pill Culture," in: Silliman and King, Dangerous Intersections, op. cit., pp. 242-254; and Marlene Gerber Fried, "Legal, But... Abortion Access in the United States," in: Silliman and King, eds., Dangerous Intersections, op. cit., pp. 255-269.

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