Open Access
American Research Journal of History and Culture
ISSN (Online): 2379-2914
DOI: 10.46568/arjhc
Abortion and the Rise of the Religious Right in American Politics
Abstract
Abortion became an incendiary political as a topic in late 1990s after the rise of Christian evangelicals and their influence
over conservative politics. The combination of the Republican party, conservative thinkers, anti-abortion evangelicals
created the powerful political group called “ the religious right.” The growing influence of the religious right was fostered
first by President Jimmy Carter before expanding dramatically with Ronald Reagan’s election. The federalist society and
Reagan’s desire for a more conservative U.S. Supreme Court, combined with the Federalist Society, a political interest
group that channeled and magnified the influence of the religious right, led to the domination of conservative values and
judges, like Antonin Scalia, who shared right beliefs and by extension the religious leaders who supported them, across
the American judiciary
