For those who have come of age in the so-called millennial generation, the alliance between conservative Republicanism and “pro-life” activism is accepted without question. Indeed, that relationship has been firmly in place for the last 40 years, and in that time has escorted untold millions of “single-issue” voters into the ranks of the GOP. But the history of the American abortion debate extends back farther than the 1970s, to different times and political circumstances that even baby boomers are unlikely to recall.
This history is the subject of a new book by Daniel K. Williams, associate professor of history at the University of West Georgia. In his Defenders of the Unborn: The Pro-Life Movement Before Roe v. Wade, Williams charts the ideologically complex roots of the abortion debate, tracing them back to a time when liberal Democrats opposed abortion with vigor, and conservative Republicans remained largely indifferent.
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