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CHAPTER 4. ABORTION DISCOURSE IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE 61
sidered appropriate now sought to extract itself from the ethical dilemmas created
as a result of its actions in the previous century. Changes in medical science, particularly
advances in the treatment of clearly medical indications for abortion, led
many physicians and legal professionals to question the legality of the “therapeutic”
abortions doctors were being asked to perform. One proposed solution was
the Model Penal Code, issued by the American Law Institute (discussed above on
page 66), which stimulated reform efforts in various states.
Staggenborg (1991) disputes the “insider explanation,” arguing that
...it fails to take into account the role of external events in pulling doctors
and other professionals into the abortion controversy. Moreover, the support
that established interest groups and organizations did provide, particularly in
the early years of the movement, was quite limited. Dissatisfaction with the
limited actions and policies of these groups forced those who wanted significant
change in the abortion laws to build a movement outside the established
power structure (page 18).
Instead, Staggenborg (1991) emphasizes the key role of social movement entrepreneurs
organizing at a grass roots level in various locations around the country.
These groups, which frequently were not even aware of each other’s efforts,
were dissatisfied with the pace of change and the focus of debate within the
established groups. An important component motivating the non-establishment
groups was the contemporary position of the American society within the “cycles
of protest:”
Although a few politically experienced individuals helped start the abortion
movement, its success was very much dependent on the cycle of protest
under way in the 1960s. Other social movements in the expanded social
movement sector of the period aided the mobilization of the abortion rights
movement in several ways. The civil rights movement was an important
precursor that generated social activism among liberal churches and clergy
and offered tactical models to numerous other movements, including the
abortion movement. Women, college students and other young people who
were activated by earlier movements of the 1960s became the grass-roots
constituents of the movement to legalize abortion. The family-planning,
population, and women’s movements directly aided mobilization by providing
organizational bases and constituents for the abortion movement.
(Staggenborg 1991, 18).