Defenders of the Unborn presents a historical narrative that is surprising in at least two ways: 1) It demonstrates that there was a vibrant, politically successful pro-life movement before Roe v. Wade, and 2) It argues that the pre-Roe pro-life campaign won legislative victories precisely because it was a liberal movement.
Most previous scholarship on abortion politics has assumed that the pro-life movement developed only as a backlash against Roe, and it has portrayed the movement as a product of cultural conservatism. My book challenges this scholarly consensus through a detailed study of the people and organizations that mobilized on behalf of the rights of the unborn in the 1960s and early 1970s.
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