The Moral Cruzade against abortion in the USA

A case study on legal and social movements around a fundamental reproductive right

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to conduct a case study on legalization of abortion in the US and current movements to re-criminalize it. Abortion is a fundamental reproductive right present in several international consensual agreements. However, abortion is still a socially stigmatized conduct. To understand the American case, the article employs Becker's (2008) concepts of “deviance” and “moral enterprise”. The conclusions are: (a) in the American context, abortion can be considered as “deviance” as proposed by Becker; and (b) the criminalization of abortion in the United States in the nineteenth century and the current resurgence of restrictive state legislation are the result of what Becker calls "moral enterprise".