Why have legislative initiatives occurred on such controversial issues as contraception and abortion at times when activist movements had demobilized and the public seemed indifferent? Why did the South - currently a region where anti-abortion sentiment is stronger than in most of the country - liberalize its abortion laws in the 1960s at a faster pace than any other region? Why have abortion and contraception sometimes been framed as matters of medical practice, and at other times as matters of moral significance? These are some of the questions addressed in The Moral Veto: Framing Contraception, Abortion, and Cultural Pluralism in the United States. Based on archival and sociological research, and speaking to issues in the study of culture, social movements, and legal change, this 2005 book examines what the history of controversies over such morally charged issues tells us about cultural pluralism in the United States.

Why have legislative initiatives occurred on such controversial issues as contraception and abortion at times when activist movements had demobilized and the public seemed indifferent? Why did the South - currently a region where anti-abortion sentiment is stronger than in most of the country - liberalize its abortion laws in the 1960s at a faster pace than any other region? Why have abortion and contraception sometimes been framed as matters of medical practice, and at other times as matters of moral significance? These are some of the questions addressed in The Moral Veto: Framing Contraception, Abortion, and Cultural Pluralism in the United States. Based on archival and sociological research, and speaking to issues in the study of culture, social movements, and legal change, this 2005 book examines what the history of controversies over such morally charged issues tells us about cultural pluralism in the United States.

Why does the Catholic Church take a politically conservative stance on some issues, such as abortion and birth control, while on others, such as social programmes and nuclear policy, it resembles the Left? Why do some Catholic groups reject the legitimacy of Church hierarchy and yet choose to remain within it? To explain these apparent contradictions, Gene Burns examines the origins of contemporary diversity and conflict in the Catholic Church, also illuminating the processes of ideological change. Drawing on interviews and archival research, Burns follows the development of ideological trends that are obviously at odds with the traditional values of Catholicism. For example, several American bishops have become outspoken critics of the government, and many American nuns became committed feminists in advance of most American women. With insights into the American Catholic Church, the modern papacy, and the Latin American Church, "The Frontiers of Catholicism" is as much a political study of ideological dynamics as it is an institutional study of religious change.