50 years ago: The fight over abortion rights heats up in various American states

Before the U.S. Supreme Court overstepped its legitimate authority in Roe v. Wade on January 22, 1973 and overturned all laws outlawing abortion in the United States, the battle over abortion rights was being fought state-by-state, with wins and losses by both sides, as reported by Associated Press article, as it appeared in The Edmonton Journal, August 21, 1967:

Chicago (AP)--Forces fighting for the liberalization of U.S. abortion laws scored their greatest gains this year--and suffered some resounding defeats.

The Colorado, North Carolina and California legislatures passed laws broadening the circumstances under which doctors can legally perform abortions.

The Indiana Legislature passed an abortion law, but Governor Roger Branigan vetoed it. "It offends the moral principles of a large proportion of our citizens" he said.

In a related development, the American Medical Association changed a policy that has stood since 1871 and adopted a liberal stand on abortion.

But moves to change laws on abortion were killed or put off by legislatures in Connecticut, Nevada, Michigan, Iowa, Maryland, New Mexico, New York and Tennessee.

Colorado became the first state to adopt in full recommendations made in 1959 by the American Law Institute in a model penal code on abortion. North Carolina followed suit a few weeks later.

An overwhelming majority of the states permit abortions only when a woman's life is endangered by pregnancy.

The institute, which is made up of lawyers working with doctors, recommended that therapeutic or legal abortions also should be permitted if:

. Continuance of pregnancy would gravely impair the physical or mental health of the mother.

. There was significant risk that the child would be born with a physical or mental defect.

. Pregnancy resulted from rape or incest.

The American Medical Association went along with all these conditions in its new policy, but the California law omits the provision dealing with possible deformed births.

The AMA's 1871 policy statement deemed it unethical for a physician to induce abortion "without the concurrent opinion of at least one othe physician and then always with a view to the safety of the child--if that be possible." The AMA committee recommending the changes called this antiquated and inadequate.

The Roman Catholic Church is the leading opponent of liberalizing abortion laws. The church regards abortion as murder.

In Nevada, however, the legislature rejected a liberalization bill after two Mormon Senators joined Roman Catholic spokesmen in opposing the measure.

But Unitarian and Congregational clergymen endorsed a liberalization bill which died in a legislative committee in Iowa; the American Lutheran church and the American Baptist Convention supported a liberalization bill in the Ohio legislature.

An abortion liberalization bill was killed in committee in New York after considerable controversy and opposition from Roman Catholics.

Proponents of liberalized abortion, including the Planned Parenthood World Population organization, predict new attempts would be made in states where liberalization proposals have been defeated and in other states where changes have not been proposed.

The reader will note which religious organizations were supporting abortion. The American Baptist Convention--formerly the Northern Baptist Convention--is the denomination that produced such scoundrels as Ron Sider and Tony Campolo. The perceptive reader will also notice that the change in the American Medical Association's policy wasn't the result of advances in medical knowledge, but was the result of political pressure. The situation in New York changed in 1970 when Governor Nelson Rockefeller (Republican), a notorious womanizer, signed the nation's most liberal abortion law.