Pro‐Choice and Pro‐Life Movements

Abstract

Abortion is one of the most contested social issues in the USA. In recent history, there have been three periods of high social movement activity: the physician antiabortion movement of the mid‐nineteenth century; the abortion rights reform/repeal movement of the 1960s; and the 1973–2022 Roe era after the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision in 1973. The Roe decision served as the catalyst for the two modern social movements most identified with the issue of abortion: the pro‐life movement and the pro‐choice movement. The constitutional right to abortion ended with the Supreme Court ruling in 2022 to overturn Roe v. Wade .