ABSTRACT
The Supreme Court's decisions in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton functioned "as a catalyst rather than as the last word on abortion". Roe read like a piece of legislation in its careful differentiation of the rights of a woman to an abortion across the three trimesters of pregnancy and its delineation of the limits of constitutional state action permitted during each trimester. The actions of interest groups after Roe highlight the basic policy dilemma presented by the abortion issue. But once the Supreme Court spoke, the nature of the debate was altered. Roe and Doe were met with enthusiasm by women in the abortion and women's rights movements. But they also provided the catalyst for major organizational efforts of the anti-abortion movement, which was caught off guard by the magnitude of the Court's decision as well as by the rapidity with which the policy process had been exploited by abortion reform/repeal groups.
