The abortion issue in the 1984 Elections.

Summary

In the 1984 election, Ronald Reagan, the Republican presidential incumbent and an opponent of legal abortion, defeated Walter Mondale, a prochoice Democrat, by a wide margin. Despite Reagan's sweep of 49 states, however, conservatives lost a little ground in the Senate, where four of the seven new senators elected take a prochoice position on abortion. On the other hand, antiabortion forces registered some gains in the House of Representatives.

The voting groups were more divided over the abortion issue in 1984 than they had been in 1980: In 1980, Reagan voters and Carter voters did not differ significantly in their attitudes toward abortion, but in 1984, Reagan voters were significantly more likely to be opposed to abortion than were Mondale voters. Nevertheless, only a small minority of voters considered abortion to be a major national issue, and the two voter groups were far more divided on several other issues than they were on abortion.

There was no antiabortion consensus among the electorate as a whole, or among Reagan voters in particular. The level of approval for legalized abortion has, in fact, remained quite stable since 1973, and a popular base in favor of banning abortion seems to be lacking.

Introduction

In this article, we investigate the role played by the abortion issue in determining the outcome of the 1984 national elections. That year, Ronald Reagan, the Republican presidential incumbent, was endorsed for the second time by the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the largest of the organized groups seeking to overturn the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. Reagan's Democratic opponent, Walter Mondale, who was supported by the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL), was in favor of federal funding of abortions for indigent women, and had selected Geraldine Ferraro, a prochoice congresswoman, as his running mate. According to the final vote count, the Reagan-Bush ticket won 59 percent of the popular vote, and the MondaleFerraro ticket, 41 percent.

The composition of both houses of Congress changed only slightly as a result of the 1984 elections. The Republicans kept their majority in the Senate, but the prochoice Democrats made a net gain of one seat. The Democrats held their majority in the House of Representatives, but antiabortion forces registered a net gain of about 12 seats.