Abstract
This thesis traces the emergence and evolution of transnational pro-life Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) between the late
1960s and early 1990s. The U.S. pro-life movement is generally understood almost exclusively in terms of changes to domestic laws, but
such depictions fail to acknowledge the long-standing and at times politically powerful transnational alliances that pro-life activists
forged from the 1970s onwards. Within the constellation of the U.S. Christian Right, it was these groups that have provoked a paradigm
shift in the politics of family life, particularly with respect to U.S. foreign policy.
U.S.-based pro-life activists found it difficult to secure tangible legislative gains even after Ronald Reagan's 1981 inauguration.
While some groups vented their frustrations by turning to direct action protests, others sought out a third way, building on
transnational networks forged by an international coalition of pro-life activists since the 1970s. U.S. pro-life activists were not simply
exporting their domestic cultural conflicts, however; instead, local conservatives in Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe and Africa were
not only receptive to overtures from U.S. pro-life activists, but often requested their assistance. The reasons for this openness to
transnational collaboration can be found in globalization's impact on local communities worldwide from the 1970s onward. I therefore
contend that globalization provided the catalysts for the emergence of the global pro-life, pro-family movement as a surprisingly
powerful player in national and global political arenas by the 1990s.
This thesis therefore complicates prevailing depictions of the growth of transnational civil society by demonstrating that
globalization not only gave rise to progressive NGOs, but also spawned a “dark side” of global organizations that participated equally
actively and adamantly in local, national, and global political arenas. To comprehend the persistence of moral conservatism as a driving
force in both transnational civil society and U.S. society and politics, historians must therefore endeavour to situate these cultural and
political phenomena within their broader global context if the U.S. pro-life movement was, as Ronald Reagan suggested, the
“conscience of the nation,” then global pro-family NGOs certainly aspired to be the “conscience of the world.”