HOLLAND: They had to convince a whole host of people that this was not only political, but the most important political issue that there is, and that everything came second to opposing abortion. She's a scholar on the anti-abortion movement and a professor at the University of Oklahoma.
JENNIFER HOLLAND: Really see the power of the anti-abortion movement to not only be a part of the party, but to really remake a party and demand sort of political uniformity on this issue. SHIVARAM: Leaders like Reagan helped to boost Republicans as a party of, quote, "family values." But over the next two decades, more radical, socially conservative figures started putting more pressure on the party. But doesn't the unborn child have a higher right? And that is to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. RONALD REAGAN: We're told about a woman's right to control her own body. Here's Ronald Reagan at the March for Life rally in 1988. Then in 1976, Republicans adopted an anti-abortion stance in their party platform, and the GOP became this political vehicle for the movement as a more vocal Christian right started to rise. Wade in 1973, there were Democratic and Republican candidates against abortion for a long time, in part to appeal to Catholic voters. Even after the Supreme Court ruled on Roe v. NPR's Deepa Shivaram reports on how the issue of abortion came to define Republican politics.ĭEEPA SHIVARAM, BYLINE: Abortion wasn't always as politically charged as it is today. Now a leaked draft Supreme Court opinion has made it apparent that goal is close to reality. Wade has been arguably the single most animating cause among conservatives in America for decades.