Bearing Right: How Conservatives Won the Abortion War [Paperback]

William Saletan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 20, 2004 | ISBN-10: 0520243366 | ISBN-13: 978-0520243361 | Edition: New Ed

In his gripping, behind-the-scenes account, journalist William Saletan reveals exactly how, thirty years after Roe v. Wade, "pro-choice" conservatives have won the abortion war. Having successfully turned abortion into a privacy issue, conservatives now prevail on issues ranging from abortion's legality and parental notification to Medicaid, rape, and cloning; consequently, reproductive autonomy is now becoming inaccessible to the young and the poor. This eye-opening exposé tells how abortion rights activists--people who desired social change, women's equality, and broader access to health care--have had their message co-opted in a culture of privacy and limited government. Bearing Right is also a story about the essentially conservative character of the United States today.
Saletan tells how, beginning in Arkansas in 1986 during the administration of Governor Bill Clinton, the National Abortion Rights Action League repackaged the abortion issue to give it broader appeal to conservatives. Pro-choice conservatives adopted this new rhetoric and made the abortion issue their own. Saletan takes us through the key events in the ensuing story--the fight over the nomination of Judge Robert Bork, the election of Governor Doug Wilder in Virginia, the convergence of the Bush and Clinton positions on abortion in 1992, and much more--right up to the present day.
This book is a crucial lesson in how politicians and interest groups can change the way we vote, not by telling us facts or lies, but by reshaping the way we think--in part through mass marketing. Today, the abortion rights movement must ask itself what it has won and what it is fighting for. This book is sure to play a role in answering that question.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A fascinating and detailed history of many of the high profile political battles in which choice was a major issue." -- Cecile Richards, Conscience

"A fascinating tale of choices made and perhaps ultimately regretted." -- Amy Sullivan, Washington Post Book World

"Bearing Right explicates the complexities of this struggle in consistently insightful detail." -- New York Times

From the Inside Flap

"Saletan's Bearing Right is as subtle and intelligent a study of abortion politics as has ever been written. You may not agree with the conclusions, but no one concerned about this issue can afford to miss this brilliant analysis."--Charles Krauthammer, syndicated columnist and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary

"Saletan destroys the myth that there's nothing new to say about America's abortion debate. His argument that the pro-choice movement has preserved abortion rights by co-opting conservative rhetoric will make activists on both sides of the debate uncomfortable, which is an achievement in and of itself. There's no smarter political commentator in Washington today."--Peter Beinart, editor, The New Republic

"Will Saletan is one of America's shrewdest political writers. He brings clarity and intelligence to the roiling abortion debate, in a challenging and illuminating work of contemporary history. If you care about the issue of abortion, you must read this book."--Rich Lowry, editor, National Review

"A unique assessment of recent abortion politics. Saletan uncovers political and institutional strategies with lucidity and verve. This book makes a raft of challenging arguments--a must-read, especially now."--Rickie Solinger, author of Beggars and Choosers: How the Politics of Choice Shapes Adoption, Abortion, and Welfare in the U.S.

"Will Saletan is a great political journalist with a strong moral sense. He also has an unusually shrewd understanding of what happens when ethics and values meet elections and the legislative process. So partisans on every side of the abortion debate--Saletan shows convincingly there are more than two--will be challenged by his book, at times upset, and always enlightened. Based on exceptional reporting and fiercely independent analysis, Bearing Right is eloquent, important, and surprising." --E.J. Dionne, Jr., syndicated columnist and author of Why Americans Hate Politics

"A unique assessment of recent abortion politics. Saletan uncovers political and institutional strategies with lucidity and verve. This book makes a raft of challenging arguments--a must-read, especially now."--Rickie Solinger, author of Beggars and Choosers: How the Politics of Choice Shapes Adoption, Abortion, and Welfare in the U.S.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 343 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; New Ed edition (October 20, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520243366
• ISBN-13: 978-0520243361
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.8 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #920,870 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 48 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Unfortunate Title, but Valuable Analysis February 9, 2005

By Sage Ross

Format:Hardcover

This unfortunately titled volume is sure to attract many puzzled and curious readers: "They/we won the abortion war?!? When did that happen?" But William Saletan's conservatives are the "pro-choice conservatives"; right-to-life activists call them liberals and politicians call them moderates. These swing voters, conservative but not radical, pro-choice but pro-restriction, have dictated the terms of engagement in the abortion war from the late 1980s on. And Saletan's well-written account of abortion politics since that time gives no indication that the conflict is over, or will be any time soon.

Bearing Right begins its narrative in Little Rock, Arkansas, 1986. Pollster Harrison Hickman is leading a focus group on a proposed amendment to the Arkansas constitution to ban public funding of abortions, while the strategists of the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) watch from behind a darkened glass panel, discussing how to turn the values of the Arkansas populace against the popular amendment. Remarkably, they succeed.

Despite voters' widespread disapproval of public funding for abortion, Hickman found a pair of key weaknesses: women were far less likely to support the amendment when rape entered the picture, and men reacted strongly when the amendment was portrayed as government intrusion into private family decisions. The resulting media campaign based on Hickman's insights marked the beginning of a dramatic shift in the terms of the public discourse on abortion rights. Pro-choice activists embraced the language of libertarian conservatism, the first slip onto a politically expedient slope that would gradually erode the meaning of "choice." They soon found that their ungrammatical new slogan, "Who Decides-You or Them?," was just as useful to their opponents for enforcing patriarchy and limiting the rights the poor and the young as it was for defending abortion rights generally. The only possible answer to the question was "you," but different groups had very different ideas of who, exactly, "you" referred to.

The story of the internal workings of NARAL is relevant to a wide array of scholars, activists, and general readers. For political scientists and historians it presents a compelling and personalized case study on rhetoric, special interests and the meanings of populism. The strategy decisions of NARAL and their consequences underscore the importance of what questions are being asked and in what contexts as competing interests try to define the "will of the people."

As Saletan points out in his less-than-subtle way, the abortion war highlights the pitfalls of sacrificing principles for expediency: inevitably, once the terms of debate are shifted toward the middle, especially in a disingenuous way, the double-tipped pen of rhetoric will write both ways. By 1992, recruiting Barry Goldwater to help defeat an Arizona ballot measure that restricted abortion rights, "pro-choice activists had reached the summit of victory stripped of the cumbersome weight of much of their agenda." "They had conquered the middle ground," Saletan concludes, "and the middle ground had conquered them." More interesting for activists and ideologues may be Saletan's discussion of "the right to choose life." Ironically, as pro-life and pro-choice rhetoric converged into a libertarian chimera of ideals and politics, it was the common ground that lost out. Within the framework of the public debate, in which abortion rights were protected by keeping the government out of personal, family (not individual) decisions, there was little room for protecting the rights of minors or working women to carry pregnancies to term against the respective demands or threats of parents or employers.

Unfortunately the intriguing NARAL story, based on organizational records and interviews, gradually dissolves into the broader context of the recent history of national abortion politics, essentially a distillation of fifteen years of news specials and newspaper clippings. The narrative loses momentum and coherence as it disconnects from the personalities and details of NARAL, and the issues spread from bans on abortion funding and government interference to parental consent laws, rape and incest exceptions, dilation & extraction/partial-birth procedures, cloning and stem cell research, and beyond.

Bearing Right is hardly adequate as a general account of abortion policy and politics; it leaves far too much out. The role of jurisprudence is mentioned occasionally but largely ignored, discussions of state abortion laws are unsystematic, and there is no analysis of the formal positions and ideologies that inform abortion activism. Even if the premise in the title is granted, the question of how the war was won is only partially answered. But what this book does do, it does very well. Saletan's extensive experience as a political correspondent shines as he analyzes the choices and public positions of activists and politicians, and though his biases are obvious, his work makes a strong enough attempt at a balanced treatment that it can-and should-be read profitably by combatants on either side, and the civilians in between as well.

49 of 55 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Readable and Thought-Provoking Contemporary History December 14, 2003

By Matthew Wall

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is an extremely readable and well-written recounting of the course of the politics of abortion from the perspective of the "sides" of the issue. As such, it's probably bound to tick off both "sides" at one point or another -- and I wouldn't take extreme negative reviews seriously, because they don't really appreciate the depth and clarity of the analysis. While I might quibble with some of the details, there's no denying it's a very well-researched book and one that, unlike most political tomes this side of Al Franken, can be read without feeling like you're stuck reading a textbook. My only real complaint is with the cover -- once again, a picture of a full-term pregnant woman to frame a book about abortions done months and months earlier, and this one with a little suggestion of female anatomy -- not helpful in taking the book seriously. But don't take this book by its cover -- if you're interested in genuine thoughtfulness and a little inside baseball on the give and take of an issue that touches most of the hot buttons of American politics, this is the book.

33 of 37 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Eye-opening October 25, 2003

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

This was completely different from everything I've read about this issue before. The details about what goes on behind the scenes are amazing, the polls and focus groups and how every word you hear from the politicians is gone over with a fine tooth comb to spin the public. I highly recommend for anyone interested on either side or in politics generally.