ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes an overview of the battle over reproductive rights. It focuses primarily on the battle over legal abortion since it has largely animated public debate and action since the 1970s. The chapter outlines four battlegrounds—states and communities, the courts, Congress, and clinics—and highlights how citizens and politicians who oppose legal abortion have worked to chip away at accessibility to the procedure in the United States. It discusses how the focus on reproductive rights more broadly and the use of new technologies might provide new ways for citizens to advocate for the health of women and families. Reproductive politics largely divide along partisan lines with Democrats supporting reproductive rights and Republicans opposing them. Pro-life advocates also have taken the battle to reproductive health clinics and used violent and non-violent tactics to close them down. Since the 1980s, some pro-life activists have used violence against clinics and clinic personnel to prevent women from obtaining reproductive services.
