Few issues are as hotly disputed as abortion, and few U.S Supreme Court decisions have been as controversial as Roe v. Wade. This volume of the Gallup Major Trends & Events: The Pulse of Our Nation 1900 to the Present series explores the history of both legalized abortion and the anti-abortion movement, examining the role of religion, the sexual revolution, and other social factors leading to today's state of affairs. Modern developments, such as partial-birth abortion, violence and demonstrations against abortion providers, and RU-486, are also dealt with. Reassuringly, Gallup Organization polls indicate that despite the extremist rhetoric heard all over the abortion debate, the majority of Americans fall somewhere in the center and have throughout the twentieth century. Book jacket.