Intended Consequences: Birth Control, Abortion, and the Federal Government in Modern America

319 Pages·1999·19.08 MB·English

by  Donald T. Critchlow

Intended Consequences
Other works by the author:
With Us Always: Private Charity and Public Welfare (co-editor) (1998)
Studebaker: Life and Death of an American Corporation (1996)
The Politics of Abortion and Birth Control in Historical Perspective (editor)
(1996)
A History of the United States, I-V, (in Polish,) (co-editor) (1995)
America!: A Concise History (1994)
Poverty and Public Policy in Modern America (co-editor) (1989)
Federal Social Policy: The Historical Dimension (co-editor) (1989)
Socialism in the Heartland: The Midwestern Experience (editor) (1986)
The Brookings Institution, 1916-1952: Expertise and the Public Interest in a
Democratic Society (1985)
Intended
Consequences
Birth Control, Abortion,
and the Federal Government
in Modern America
Donald T. Critchlow
OXPORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
Oxford New York
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Copyright © 1999 by Oxford University Press, Inc.
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
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ical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of
Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Critchlow, Donald T.
Intended consequences : birth control, abortion, and the federal government in
modern America / Donald T. Critchlow.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-19-504657-9 (Cloth)
ISBN 0-19-514593-3 (Pbk.)
1. Birth control—Government policy—United States. 2. Abortion—
Government policy—United States. 3. United States—Social policy.
4. United States—Politics and government. I. Title.
HQ763.6.U5C75 1999
363.9'6'0973—dc21 98-13691
Printing (last digit) 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
With love and devotion to my wife, Patricia,
and our family, Magda, Agnieszka, and Andrew
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 3
1. Laying the Foundation for Federal Family
Planning Policy: The Eisenhower-Kennedy
Years 13
2. Moving Forward Quietly: Family Planning in
the Johnson Administration 50
3. Implementing the Policy Revolution Under
Johnson and Nixon 85
4. The Backlash: Roman Catholics,
Contraceptives, Abortion, and Sterilization
112
5. Richard Nixon and the Politicization of Family
Planning Policy 148
6. Contesting the Policy Terrain After Roe: From
Reagan to Clinton 184
Conclusion 225
Notes 239
Index 297
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Acknowledgments
I owe a great debt to many people and institutions that supported the writ-
ing of this book. A fellowship in 1996-97 at the Woodrow Wilson
International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., allowed me to
complete this project in an ideal environment. I want to thank the staff at
the Wilson Center, especially Michael Lacey, director of the United States
Studies Division, and his able former assistant, George Wagner, for their
encouragement and intellectual stimulation. The center provided me with
a number of research assistants during the course of the year whose en-
thusiasm for the project was evidenced in their willingness to ferret
information from the Library of Congress, the National Archives, and
organizations located in Washington, D.C. These research assistants
deserve recognition: Dayspring Brock, Misty Brown, Nina Choi, and
Bernice Lee. Throughout the course of the year, other Wilson fellows
challenged my thinking about federal family planning policy. Henry
Muiison shared with me his interest and insights into religious fundamen-
talism in the United States and the Middle East. Anne Feldhaus, Richard
Grassby, Robert Lerner, Seymour Lipset, William O'Neill, and John
Stone provided valuable comments on two seminar presentations I made
at the center. Temma Kaplan and Dorothy Ross read a preliminary draft of
a chapter that concerned the women's movement and offered sharp criti-
cism as feminist historians interested in social and intellectual history. In
Washington, Clyde Wilcox and Patrick Fagan shared survey data drawn
from their work on abortion and social values.
I want to thank a small group of my friends who read the manuscript in
its entirety including James Fisher, Wilfred McClay, and William
Rorabaugh. James Reed and James Hitchcock, although having different
perspectives and levels of expertise concerning the subject, offered criti-
cisms that inform this book. Mark Neely and Philip Gleason deserve par-
ticular praise for their detailed line-by-line reading of an earlier draft that
led to a radical revision of the manuscript—stylistically, organizationally,
and intellectually. They illustrate scholarship and friendship at its best.
Numerous archivists facilitated primary research at their institutions
including the Alan Guttmacher Institute (Washington, D.C.), American