Preface<br > This book is an examination of the shape and direction of public<br >attitudes toward abortion. Our motivation in writing this book is<br >based on our belief that， in the last analysis， the abortion controversy<br >will be settled in the court of public opinion. As we write this， the<br >United States Supreme Court has recently upheld certain restrictions<br >on access to legal abortion in the case of Webster v. Missouri<br >Reproductive Services and is considering permitting states to regulate<br >abortion further in the pending case of Casey v. Planned Parenthood.<br >The direction that the Court is taking on this issue is quite clear.<br >State governments will be allowed increasing discretion in regulating<br >abortion and may (in the event of an outright reversal of Roe v.<br >Wade) be allowed to prohibit the practice entirely. Thus， control of<br >access to abortion is being removed from the federal courts and put<br >into the hands of elected officials such as members of Congress，<br >governors， and state legislators. If one assumes that elected officials<br >are， in some sense， responsive to public opinion， it matters a great<br >deal what ordinary citizens think and believe about the practice of<br >abortion.<br > We will consider the distinctions made by members of the mass<br >public toward legal abortion and will look closely at the types of<br >people likely to favor or oppose abortion. In addition， considerable<br >attention will be paid to other factors that influence people s abortion<br >attitudes， the role of religion in shaping the abortion debate， and the<br >likely consequences of abortion attitudes for electoral politics in the<br >United States. Although we regard public attitudes toward abortion<br >as interesting in their own right， we will also be concerned with the<br >consequences of abortion politics for American politics generally.<br > This book is not a treatise on the moral or ethical issues raised by<br >the abortion issue. We have no special insight into questions such as<br >"Is the fetus a person? Does legal abortion encourage immoral<br >sexual behavior?" or "Is theabortion right necessary for full female<br ><br >