40 years later, Roe. v. Wade more divisive

By today's politically polarized standards, the Supreme Court's momentous Roe v. Wade ruling was a landslide. By a 7-2 vote on Jan. 22, 1973, the justices established a nationwide right to abortion.

Forty years and roughly 55 million abortions later, however, the ruling's legacy is the opposite of consensus. Abortion ranks as one of the most intractably divisive issues in America, and is likely to remain so as rival camps of true believers see little space for common ground.

Unfolding events in two states illustrate the depth of the divide. In New York, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo pledged in his State of the State speech to entrench abortion rights even more firmly. In Mississippi, the lone remaining abortion clinic is on the verge of closure because nearby hospitals won't grant obligatory admitting privileges to its doctors.

"Unlike a lot of other issues in the culture wars, this is the one in which both sides really regard themselves as civil rights activists, trying to expand the frontiers of human freedom," said Jon Shields, a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College. "That's a recipe for permanent conflict."

A new Pew Research Center poll finds 63 percent of U.S. adults opposed to overturning Roe, compared with 60 percent in 1992. The latest Gallup poll on the topic shows 52 percent of Americans saying abortion should be legal under certain circumstances; 25 percent wanting it legal in all cases; and 20 percent wanting it outlawed in all cases -- roughly the same breakdown as in the 1970s.

A gray area for many

"There's a large share of Americans for whom this is not a black-and-white issue," said Michael Dimock, the Pew center's director. "The circumstances matter to them."

About one-third of adult women have had at least one in their lifetime. Of the roughly 1.2 million U.S. women who have abortions each year, half are 25 or older, about 18 percent are teens, and the rest are between 20 and 24. About 60 percent have given birth to least one child before getting an abortion. A disproportionately high number are black or Hispanic. Regardless of race, high abortion rates are linked to economic hard times.

The rival legions of activists and advocacy groups on the front lines of the conflict each claim momentum for their side as they convene symposiums and organize rallies to commemorate the Roe anniversary.

Supporters of legal access to abortion were relieved by the victory of their ally, President Barack Obama, over anti-abortion Republican Mitt Romney in November. Romney, if elected, might have been able to appoint conservative Supreme Court justices to help overturn Roe v. Wade, but Obama's victory makes that unlikely at least for the next four years.

Abortion-rights groups also were heartened by a backlash to certain anti-abortion initiatives and rhetoric that they viewed as extreme. In Missouri and Indiana, GOP candidates for the U.S. Senate lost races after making widely criticized comments regarding abortion rights for impregnated rape victims.

Arguments for, against

Dr. Douglas Laube, chairman of Physicians for Reproductive Health Choice, began performing abortions a year after the Roe decision. "It was important for women to be able to legally ensure their right to make their own decision," he said.

But some say the Roe opinion was wrong to dismantle state anti-abortion laws so sweepingly.

"One key virtue of democracy is that, win or lose, the outcomes are generally seen as legitimate because all of the competing sides have had their say," said Carter Snead, a Notre Dame law professor who has studied abortion and bioethics. "In Roe, the court short-circuited this process entirely, and handed a near total victory to one side of a bitterly contested question on the gravest of matters."

For Carrie Gordon Earll, senior policy analyst for the conservative ministry Focus on the Family, that Roe-established freedom of choice once seemed logical. She had an abortion in 1981 while attending college.

She recently made a video expressing her regrets. "What it [Roe v. Wade] has created is a world where you're almost expected to abort if you're pregnant at an inopportune time," she said.

Since Republican election gains in 2010, GOP-dominated state legislatures have passed more than 130 bills intended to reduce access to abortion. The ACLU and other abortion-rights groups are challenging several of the measures, which include bans on abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy.