Is abortion a religious issue? And what if it is?

Abstract

"The purpose of this article is to examine whether abortion may be regarded as a religious issue, and what legal and political effects it creates under the American constitutional system assuming that it may be regarded that way. By asking if abortion is a religious issue I mean the following problem: are attitudes toward abortion shaped exclusively by religious convictions? That question certainly occurs on the one side of the abortion debate, namely among those who believe abortion should not be a lawful practice. Putting the question in this way still does not make it clear enough, as one may ask about the factor deciding if abortion really is a religious issue: is it the proportion of people drawing the conclusion as to the improperness of abortion from religious beliefs among all those who are convinced that abortion should not be a lawful practice, or is it the lack of some final conclusive argument against abortion (or general ignorance about the existence of such an argument among pro-life sympathizers) that is not dependent on religious beliefs?"(...)