by Jerry Z. Muller

About the author: Historian Jerry Z. Muller is the author of numerous books concerning social and political history.

In contemporary American political debate, struggles over abortion are usually treated as conflicts between rival interpretations of individual rights. Those who favor abortion most often invoke the “right to choose” of the woman who has conceived the fetus. Those who oppose abortion focus on the “right to life” of the fetus. But there is a third position that is largely overlooked. Essentially conservative and “pro-family,” it favors abortion as the right choice to promote healthy family life under certain circumstances.

This argument, which emphasizes the social function of the family over the rights of the individual, begins with the assumption that the possibility of choice matters less...