Abortion and adoption as two poles of reproductive decision-making in the United States during the 1980s

Abstract

The 1980s were characterized not only by Ronald Reagan’s rhetoric of ‘traditional family values’ but also by a fierce anti-abortion movement that challenged the legalization of abortion. While the women’s movement fought to preserve abortion rights and reproductive choice, an organization that originated with the 1970s women’s rights and self-help movements conceived ‘adoption’ as a moral alternative to abortion. The self-help organization Concerned United Birthparents, founded in 1976 sought the opening of records and moral recognition for ‘birthmothers’ (and later ‘birth-parents’ in general). While their emphasis on adoption as an alternative to abortion seemed to meet with President Reagan’s pro-adoption campaign and the Christian Right’s support for adoption, Concerned United Birthparents nonetheless pursued an agenda of its own, demanding respect and legitimacy for unmarried women’s reproductive decision-making. This article draws primarily on the records of Concerned United Birthparents to develop a new perspective on single women’s changing perception of their reproductive rights and choices in the 1980s. Transforming an originally conservative claim (‘adoption instead of abortion’) into individual ‘adoption rights’ and an inclusive concept of ‘choice’, Concerned United Birthparents drew on the social movements of the period. Moreover, it provided a case for liberal reproductive decision-making within an ultra-conservative political climate that challenges the assumption of an all-encompassing conservative revolution.