I found an interesting
piece
on the NPR website about the modern anti-abortion movement:
In the 1980s, in order to solidify their shift from divorce to
abortion, the Religious Right constructed an abortion myth, one
accepted by most Americans as true. Simply put, the abortion myth is
this: Leaders of the Religious Right would have us believe that their
movement began in direct response to the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973
Roe v. Wade decision. Politically conservative evangelical leaders were so
morally outraged by the ruling that they instantly shed their
apolitical stupor in order to mobilize politically in defense of the
sanctity of life. Most of these leaders did so reluctantly and at great
personal sacrifice, risking the obloquy of their congregants and the
contempt of liberals and "secular humanists," who were trying their
best to ruin America. But these selfless, courageous leaders of the
Religious Right, inspired by the opponents of slavery in the nineteenth
century, trudged dutifully into battle in order to defend those
innocent unborn children, newly endangered by the Supreme Court's
misguided Roe decision.
It's a compelling story, no question about it. Except for one thing: It
isn't true.
...
Let's remember, [Paul Weyrich] said animatedly, that the Religious
Right did not come together in response to the Roe decision. No,
Weyrich insisted, what got us going as a political movement was the
attempt on the part of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to rescind
the tax-exempt status of Bob Jones University because of its racially
discriminatory policies.
...
"What caused the movement to surface," Weyrich reiterated,"was the
federal government's moves against Christian schools." The IRS threat
against segregated schools, he said, "enraged the Christian community."
That, not abortion, according to Weyrich, was what galvanized
politically conservative evangelicals into the Religious Right and
goaded them into action. "It was not the other things," he said.
Excerpted from
Thy Kingdom Come,
by Randall Balmer.