Abstract
ABSTRACT Religious engagement can foster either democratic or illiberal views among adherents. Some religious institutions attempt to mobilize believers against abortion rights. For these believers, when does religion mobilize pro-choice protest participation? I test three pathways by which a prescriptive norm of pro-life protest participation might mobilize believers: general religiosity, hierarchical pressure from religious leaders, and pressure from fellow parishioners. Using semi-structured interviews with Polish anti-abortion organizers and an original, pre-registered survey experiment of Polish Catholics, I show that religiosity does not mobilize anti-abortion activism. Instead, religious group engagement powerfully drives pro-life protest. Hierarchical pressures from religious leaders and group pressures from fellow parishioners only increase the likelihood that believers protest against abortion for highly engaged parishioners, but not less-engaged parishioners. Further, religious group engagement levels fully mediate these relationships. Thus, hierarchical and social norms impact individuals’ protest propensity to the extent that they are deeply embedded in a tightly knit social group.
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