The abortion issue in the 1980 Elections.

Summary

The political opponents of legal abortion achieved considerable gains in the 1980 American elections. A president who was committed to a strong antiabortion position was elected, and antiabortion candidates prevailed in six out of seven Senate races that pitted supporters against opponents of legal abortion and in seven out of nine similar confrontations in the House races. However, it is not clear that abortion was an overriding or decisive factor in determining those outcomes.

Democrats and Republicans, Carter voters and Reagan voters did not differ significantly in their attitudes toward abortion. The presidential voter groups were divided on several other issues, and along income and racial lines, to a far greater extent than they were on abortion. Voters were not likely to name abortion as one of the more important problems facing the nation. Carter supporters rated abortion as more important than did Reagan supporters. Although the party platforms and the presidential candidates were clearly differentiated in their abortion stands, these differences were not well communicated to the citizenry. When voters attempted to describe the position of each candidate on abortion, they displayed a great deal of uncertainty, error and confusion.

In the key Senate races, those who voted for the prochoice candidates held more liberal abortion attitudes than those who voted for the right-to-life candidates. This difference, although statistically significant, was not great, and was smaller than the differences related to several other issues-such as attitudes toward the role of government, women's rights and economic policies. In addition, the difference was reduced to nonsignificance after the voter's political affiliation and family income were controlled for. The level of public approval for legalized abortion has been quite stable since 1973, and the popular base for limiting access to or banning abortion seems to be lacking. The antiabortion forces appear to have made political gains in 1978 and 1980 as an incidental consequence of a slight but significant shift toward political conservatism on the part of the U.S. electorate. The political ascendancy of the antiabortion forces did not continue into the 1982 congressional elections; indeed, it beg an to be reversed.

Introduction

In this article, we examine whether or not the abortion issue was an important factor in determining the outcome of the 1980 national elections. In 1980, the opponents of legal abortion achieved substantial gains in political power. Jimmy Carter, the Democratic presidential incumbent, had withheld his support from any of the proposed constitutional amendments that would have restricted or banned abortion, and was defeated. Ronald Reagan, the Republican victor, had expressed support for the Human Life Amendment, the antiabortion amendment most favored by the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the largest of the organized groups seeking to overturn the 1973 Supreme Court decisions. (*) John Anderson, a registered Republican running as an Independent candidate, believed not only that women should have access to legal abortion but also that the government, through the Medicaid program, should pay for abortions for poor women. Although Carter supported legal abortion, he, in contrast to Anderson, did not fav or the use of government funds to subsidize abortion services. For this reason, while Reagan became the official presidential choice of the NRLC, Anderson was the candidate endorsed by the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL). In the final presidential election vote count, Reagan won 51 percent of the popular vote; Carter, 41 percent; and Anderson, seven percent. (*)

The opponents of legal abortion also achieved considerable gains in both houses of Congress. Several incumbent liberal Senators who supported legal abortion were defeated, and the Republicans won control of the Senate. The Democrats held their majority in the House of Representatives after the 1980 election, but the antiabortion movement also registered some gains.