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| | ===Abortion=== | | ===Abortion=== |
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| | + | The Supreme Court shockingly established a constitutional right to abortion on January 22, 1973, in ''Roe v. Wade''. A related decision issued the same day, in ''Bolton v. Doe'', expanded that new right to abortion to any time during pregnancy, all the way up to just prior to childbirth. "Late-term abortion" refers to abortions performed up until childbirth, which were allowed under these two decisions of the Supreme Court until the Supreme Court upheld a federal law against late-term abortion in 2007. |
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| | + | For the first decade after ''Roe v. Wade'', the "pro-life" movement sought to enact a constitutional amendment to overturn ''Roe v. Wade'' and prohibit abortion. But constitutional amendments require 2/3rds support in both the House of Representatives and the Senate before they can be sent to the States for ratification (and 3/4ths of the States are required to ratify it). A "super-majority" of support did not exist for a pro-life amendment. The amendment approach was futile. |
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| | + | Abortions then increased dramatically in the United States as a result, from a few hundred thousand per year to more than a million per year. |
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| | + | In the late 1980s, the pro-life movement shifted to a different, more effective approach, one that was based on federalism. Pro-lifers passed laws at the state level that required more safeguards before an abortion could be performed. A 24-hour waiting period, for example, was required by some states to ensure that the mother was not making her decision too quickly. Requirements that more information be provided to a woman in connection with a decision to have an abortion were passed. The numbers of abortions began to decrease as these state laws took effect. |
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| | + | In 2013, a special session of the Texas legislature passed a law prohibiting abortion by any physician who lacked admitting privileges at a hospital located within 30 miles of the abortion, so that he could help with any complications that his operation caused. Most abortion clinics do not take care of the harm they cause to the woman. The clinics appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to block this law from going into effect, but the Supreme Court did not block it. This law went into effect, and about half the abortion clinics in Texas then closed because they were not in compliance with it. |
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| | + | In Missouri, there is only one abortion clinic remaining in the entire state (located in St. Louis), and very effective sidewalk counselors persuade woman outside of the clinic, on public property, not to have an abortion. When the abortion clinic tried to have the sidewalk counselors prosecuted, they asserted their First Amendment rights of free speech, and won. In 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court used the First Amendment to invalidate a Massachusetts law that prohibited sidewalk counseling speaking within 35 feet of the abortion clinic or within 35 feet of women going to the clinic for an abortion. Different states (and towns) have different laws to try to interfere with pro-life counseling of women in connection with abortion. |
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| | + | In 1973, in ''Roe v Wade'', the Supreme Court was divided by 7-2 in favor of abortion. Now, in 2014, the Supreme Court is divided 4-4 on the issue, and one Justice votes sometimes with the pro-abortion side, and sometimes with the pro-life side. |
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| | + | The longest running civil rights march in American history is the "March for Life," which attracts hundreds of thousands of people (including many teenagers) to D.C. each year for the anniversary of ''Roe v. Wade''. The next March for Life is on Thursday, January 22, 2015. |
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| | ===Gun rights=== | | ===Gun rights=== |