The Influence of the Catholic Anti-Abortion Movement on the Identity of the Republican Party in the 1960s and 1970s

This bachelor's thesis discusses the shift in the Republican Party's position on abortion in the 1970s in the context of Catholic anti-abortion movement. The anti-abortion movement was mobilised due to social upheavals of the 1960s during which the calls for abortion-laws liberalization became more prominent. The pro-life movement in the 1960s and 1970s was almost exclusively Catholic, since evangelicals joined the movement as part of the New Christian Right in the late 1970s. With the use of primary and secondary sources, the thesis analyses the relationship between the Republican Party and the pro-life movement. The thesis seeks to answer the question why the Republican Party included a pro-life stance to its platform. The thesis consists of three chapters. The first one explains the character and activity of the pro- life movement and the positions of the main actors, the Republican Party and the Catholic Church, on the abortion issue up to the legalization of abortion in 1973. The second part analyses Richard Nixon's position on abortion. The last chapter deals with Republican Party's adoption of the pro-life platform in 1976 and focuses on strengthening of the ties between the pro-life movement and the Republican Party. After analysing the relationship between the movement and the party, the..