THE CHANGING VOICE OF THE ANTI- ABORTION MOVEMENT The Rise of “Pro-Woman” Rhetoric in Canada and the United States When journalists, academics, and politicians describe the North Amer- ican anti-abortion movement, they often describe a campaign that is male-dominated, aggressive and even violent in its tactics, religious in motivation, anti-woman in tone, and fetal-centric in its arguments and rhetoric. Are they correct? In The Changing Voice of the Anti-abortion Movement, Paul Saurette and Kelly Gordon suggest that the reality is far more complicated, partic- ularly in Canada. Today, anti-abortion activism increasingly presents itself as “pro-woman”: using female spokespersons, adopting medi- cal and scientific language to claim that abortion harms women, and employing a wide range of more subtle framing and narrative rhetori- cal tactics that use traditionally progressive themes to present the anti- abortion position as more feminist than pro-choice feminism. Following a succinct but comprehensive overview of the two- hundred-year history of North American debate and legislation on abortion, Saurette and Gordon present the results of their systematic, five-year quantitative and qualitative discourse analysis, supplemented by extensive first-person observations, and outline the implications that flow from these findings. Their discoveries are a challenge to our current assumptions about the abortion debate today, and their conclu- sions will be compelling for both scholars and activists alike. paul saurette is a professor in the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa. kelly gordon is a PhD candidate in the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa. This page intentionally left blank The Changing Voice of the Anti-abortion Movement The Rise of “Pro-Woman” Rhetoric in Canada and the United States PAUL SAURETTE AND KELLY GORDON UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS Toronto Buffalo London © University of Toronto Press 2015 Toronto Buffalo London www.utppublishing.com Printed in the U.S.A. ISBN 978-1-4426-4761-9 (cloth) ISBN 978-1-4426-1569-4 (paper) Printed on acid-free, 100% post-consumer recycled paper with vegetable- based inks. ______________________________________________________________________ Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Saurette, Paul, author The changing voice of the anti-abortion movement: the rise of “pro-woman” rhetoric in Canada and the United States / Paul Saurette and Kelly Gordon. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4426-4761-9 (cloth). – ISBN 978-1-4426-1569-4 (paper) 1. Pro-life movement – Canada – History. 2. Pro-life movement – United States – History. I. Gordon, Kelly, 1984–, author II. Title. HQ767.5.C3S29 2015 363.460971 C2015-907240-9 ______________________________________________________________________ This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Awards to Scholarly Publications Program, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario. aunn Oorngtaanriios mgoe vdeur ngmouevnet rangeemnecnyt de l’Ontario Funded by the Financé par le Government gouvernement of Canada du Canada Contents Preface xi 1 Introduction 3 1.1 Abortion Politics in North America Today 4 1.2 Why Study Abortion Politics? 11 1.3 The Traditional Portrait: Male, Religious, Legislative, Anti-woman, Fetal-centric 12 1.4 Theoretical Framework: Words Matter 17 1.5 Methodology and Research Design 21 1.6 Methodological Reliability 27 1.7 Chapter Overview 31 Part I: Historicizing the Abortion Debate in North America 2 The History of the Abortion Debate in the United States 37 2.1 Abortion before 1840 37 2.2 The AMA’s Crusade against Abortion: Medicalizing and (Im)moralizing Abortion 39 2.3 Criminalizing Abortion, 1840–1900 43 2.4 Liberalizing Birth Control, 1900–1940 47 2.5 Legal Reform: Therapeutic Abortion Committees, 1950s–1960s 51 2.6 Setting the Stage for the Rise of the Abortion Rights Movement, 1960–1965 52 2.7 The Rise of Rights before Roe v. Wade, 1965–1972 55 2.8 The Roe v. Wade Decision, 1973 59 2.9 Conclusion 62 vi Contents 3 The Abortion Debate in the United States after Roe v. Wade 65 3.1 The Rise of the Contemporary American Anti-abortion Movement and the Hyde Amendment 66 3.2 The Rising Influence of the Religious Right 68 3.3 Operation Rescue 71 3.4 The Rise of Anti-abortion Violence and the Decline of O peration Rescue 77 3.5 The Backtrack: Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, 1989 79 3.6 Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Robert P. Casey et al., 1992 81 3.7 Partial Birth Abortion Bans: Stenberg v. Carhart and Gonzales v. Carhart 83 3.8 Contemporary Abortion Legislation 84 3.9 Conclusion 90 4 The History of the Early Abortion Debate in Canada 92 4.1 Criminalizing Abortion in Britain and Colonial Canada 93 4.2 Abortion Reform in the United Kingdom 96 4.3 The Birth Control Movement in Canada 99 4.4 Abortion Reform in Canada 101 4.5 The Decriminalization of Abortion: Section 251 105 4.6 The Fallout over Section 251 106 4.7 The Emergence of the Canadian Anti-abortion Movement 108 4.8 The Intensification of the Anti-abortion Movement in Canada 110 4.9 The Christian Right in Canada 111 4.10 The Discourse of the Early Canadian Anti-abortion Movement 113 4.11 Conclusion 116 5 The Abortion Debate in Canada: Morgentaler and Beyond 118 5.1 Abortion in the Courts, Round 1: Morgentaler v. The Queen, 1976 118 5.2 A Transforming Political and Legal Context 120 5.3 Abortion in the Courts, Round 2: R. v. Morgentaler, 1988 123 5.4 Establishing a “Sense of the House”: The Parliamentary Abortion Debate of 1988 126 5.5 Abortion in the Courts, Round 3: Borowski’s Attempt to Establish Fetal Rights 129 5.6 Abortion in the Courts, the Final Round: Tremblay v. Daigle 130 5.7 Drafting a New Abortion Law: Abortion in the Political Realm 132 5.8 Anti-abortion Violence 134 Contents vii 5.9 Recent Anti-abortion Legislative Efforts 136 5.10 Conclusion 143 6 Intermezzo: The History of the Abortion Debate in North America 145 6.1 Abortion Politics in the United States and Canada: Historical Similarities and Differences 145 6.2 The Historical Abortion Debate and the Traditional Portrait 152 Part II: The Changing Voice of the Contemporary Anti-abortion Movement 7 Shifting Strategies: A Little Old, a Lot New, a Bit of Both 159 7.1 Failing to Plan Is Planning to Fail: Results-Oriented Strategizing 162 7.2 The Terrain of Contestation: Law and/or Culture 166 7.3 To the Web! The New Anti-abortion Network 170 7.4 Communications, Communications, Communications 173 7.5 Persuasion in the Streets: Reason, Rhetoric, and Respect 178 7.6 Conclusion 188 8 Women Up Front, God Out Back: The Changing Anti-abortion Arguments 189 8.1 God and the Public Sphere 191 8.2 Think about the Women: The “Abortion-Harms-Women” Argument 198 8.3 Framing Harm: Discursive Medicalization, Progressive Cooptation, Repetition 206 8.4 Visual Signalling: The Changing Face of the Movement 211 8.5 Fetal Personhood Renewed 216 8.6 Conclusion 220 9 We’re All Progressives Now: Rebranding the Movement 222 9.1 Essentially Contested Concepts, Networks of Association, and Framing 222 9.2 Identity/Brand Frame Extension: Progressives against Abortion 231 9.3 Historical Progressivism 234 9.4 Contemporary Progressivism 237 9.5 Seekers of Truth, Defenders of Free Speech 240 9.6 Conclusion 243 viii Contents 10 Anti-abortionism as the New Feminism: Reframing the Position 245 10.1 Values Framing: Equality and Choice 245 10.2 Issue Framing: Anti-abortionism as a Women’s Issue 253 10.3 Epistemological Framing: Standpoint Anti-abortionism 264 10.4 Conclusion 270 11 From Jezebel to Snow White: Moralizing through Narrativizing 271 11.1 Metaphorical Tone: Strict Father or Nurturant Parent? 271 11.2 From Jezebel to Snow White: Narratives in Action 277 11.3 Conclusion 291 12 “Pro-woman” Discourse in the United States 292 12.1 The Enduring Relevance of the Traditional Portrait in the United States 292 12.2 The Emergence of Woman-Protective Anti-abortion Arguments 296 12.3 The Prevalence of Woman-Protective Anti-abortion Arguments in American Anti-abortion Discourse 301 12.4 Conclusion: Comparing the United States and Canada 308 Part III: Conclusions and Implications 13 Theoretical Implications 315 13.1 Our Findings 316 13.2 Implications for the Study of Canadian Politics 320 13.3 Implications for the Study of Political Movements, Communication, and Ideology 321 13.4 Implications for the Study of Religion and Politics in Canada 323 13.5 Explaining the Shape of Contemporary Anti-abortion Discourse in Canada 327 13.6 Implications for Gender Studies 331 13.7 Methodological Implications 334 14 Where to Now? Practical Implications for Abortion Rights Advocates 337 14.1 A Reproductive Justice Frame? 339 14.2 Organizational and Tactical Implications 345 Contents ix Acknowledgments 361 Appendix A: Glossary of Key Legal and Political Events, Organizations, and Individuals 367 A1. Legislation, Policy, Legal Decisions 367 A2. Civil Society Organizations and Campaigns 373 A3. Individuals 379 Appendix B: Historical Timeline – Abortion Politics in the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States 384 Appendix C: Historical Timeline – Abortion Discourse in Canada and the United States 388 References 393 Index 423