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Roe effect Wikipedia

The Roe effect is a theory of how the court case Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion nationwide in the United States, affected the political leanings of Americans. The simple version states that, since those who favor legal abortion are much more likely to get one than those who oppose it, and since children often follow their parents' political leanings, support for legal abortions will decline over time, simply because pro-choice parents will have fewer children than they might otherwise have had. Since people frequently associate their views with political parties, those parties that oppose abortion, such as conservative parties, including the Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party, could gain power over time. James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal named this theory and has discussed it extensively in his Opinionjournal.com column "Best of the Web Today." He cites statistics to support his case, such as evidence that current college-age students (mostly born after abortion's legalization) oppose abortion more now than students in earlier years.

Taranto coined the phrase in a brief entry in Opinionjournal.com on December 9, 2003, but first wrote about the theory in a response to analyses relating sexual mores and voting preferences on January 17, 2003.
Tarnato would go on to wrote multiple op-eds and notes on his concept for Opinionjournal.com.
In a April 14, 2005 piece, Taranto suggested that the Roe effect would also be a key factor in explaining that the greatest long-term declines in child poverty and single mothers predominantly occurred in Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic-leaning regions of the United States - due to the availability of abortion to teenage mothers in pro-choice states.

Last Modified:   2005-12-23