In the years that followed, the dividing lines became more apparent as political candidates found it increasingly necessary to align with activists who were becoming more influential within their parties. In a 1983 Senate vote, 34 Republicans and 15 Democrats voted for a proposed constitutional amendment that would have overturned the Roe decision, while 19 Republicans and 31 Democrats voted against it.īiden was among those voting no, even though he had backed the legislation in committee the previous year. At the same time, women's rights activists gained more influence within the Democratic Party and pushed leaders to support abortion rights.īut support for Roe still did not line up along party lines. Republican Ronald Reagan's presidential victory that same year gave abortion opponents a powerful ally in the White House. In 1980, the Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution opposing abortion, reversing its earlier position. "For many evangelicals, this was more about family and women and sex," she said. For pastors and parishioners, abortion became a proxy issue for concerns about a liberalizing society, said Mary Ziegler, a legal historian at University of California-Davis. These groups portrayed abortion as a threat to the family structure, along with broader social developments like gay rights, rising divorce rates, and women working outside of the home.
In the years that followed, conservative activists like Phyllis Schlafly seized on the issue as a threat to traditional values and enlisted evangelical churches, which had shown a new interest in politics following a series of court rulings that limited prayer in public settings. The General Social Survey opinion poll found in 1977 that 39% of Republicans said abortion should be allowed for any reason, compared to 35% of Democrats.
Voters also did not see the issue along partisan lines.