Abortion controversy

One of the sharpest divisions in United States politics is over taxpayer-funded abortion, and abortion in general.

By a 7-2 vote the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion on demand in 1973 throughout the United States, which invalidated laws in virtually every state prohibiting or limiting abortion.

The highly controversial U.S. Supreme Court decision stated that prohibiting abortion violated a woman's constitutional rights, and that the right to life granted in the constitution was not originally intended to apply to an unborn child.

Some have pointed to the incongruity of US federal law which deems that the fertilized eggs of any of over 800 species of native birds warrant federal-government protection under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 while the fertilized egg of a human being is regarded as a disposable mass of tissue.