Feminism and Abortion in the United States’ Party Politics

Abstract The feminist movement in the United States like other countries has tried to establish equality for women. From the first attempts to gain constitutional right for vote, up to the current radical demands, feminists have struggled to make changes in the U.S. party politics and obtain their rights within the parties. One of the important issues in which women played a key role in party politics is the issue of abortion. In this article, U.S. party politics on abortion, the role of the feminist movement in the process of legalization and the controversies regarding it are studied. Through two major social movements known as “pro-choice” and “pro-life”, feminists mainly follow their goals and attitudes on abortion. In political realm, Democrats, due to their liberal approaches, are commonly known to be pro-choice, while Republicans are known as pro-life supporters. Being pro-choice or pro-life for these two political parties has created debates and controversies which are examined in this article. U.S. feminists from the beginning have tried their best to elect women to send to the Congress and political parties; since they believe that if they want to get things done in U.S., they have to enter the parties and work for change inside them.
Therefore, as indicated in this paper, U.S. party politics have been remarkably influenced by the feminist movements about abortion. This paper, arguing abortion from the lens of the two major US party institutions, focuses on the political and social domains and feminist movements’ arguments.