Abortion Rights Research Articles

Study of U.S. Democratic and Republican Senators' Political Framing Strategies on Abortion Rights Based on Social Identity Theory and Framing Effect

Political framing significantly shapes public opinions and legislative outcomes in the United States, making the understanding of Democratic and Republican senators' strategies concerning abortion rights necessary. This study employs Social Identity Theory and Framing Effect to analyze cognitive and affective language patterns, as well as frequent references to specific word count in senators' speeches, using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) program. The findings reveal distinct partisan differences: Democrats frequently emphasize women's rights and personal freedoms, while Republicans focus on morality and the sanctity of unborn life. These divergent framing strategies highlight how party affiliation influences the discourse on this contentious issue. The research, using both qualitative and quantitative approaches, underscores the complexity of political communication and the need for nuanced studies to explore how language reflects and shapes political identities and ideologies.

Abortion is healthcare: In what sense?

In the wake of Dobbs versus Jackson Women's Health Organization, many nursing organizations asserted that “abortion is health care” and access to it must be protected. Such a phrase makes clear claims about the meanings of “health” and “care.” How one defines these terms gives decisive direction to how a nurse must practice regarding not just elective abortion but also myriad interventions that divide bioethicists, including gender affirmative care, cosmetic surgery, and euthanasia. We consider the issue of elective abortion to illustrate the nature of disputes about the scope and limits of professional nursing. We describe two competing intuitions about the nature of health care namely that health care is either for 1) health, objectively defined or 2) well-being, patient defined. We discuss how these intuitions lead to different understandings of the intelligibility of the phrase “abortion is health care” and the implications for ethical discourse within professional nursing.

Max Horkheimer on Law's Force of Resistance

The law maintains, rather than challenges, the powers that be – or so it is commonly thought. In ‘Rackets and Spirit,’ a little known and untranslated essay, Max Horkheimer complicates this notion by attributing to law a ‘force of resistance’. He contends that, under certain conditions, the legal process develops a logic of its own, one that can become disjointed from the rationale of power. In this Critical Reflection, I look closely at the paragraph in which Horkheimer introduces the notion of a ‘force of resistance’. I argue that Horkheimer develops a theme that he and Theodor W. Adorno return to in the Dialectic of Enlightenment: the spiritual instruments of domination, among them law, have the potential to turn against domination. At the same time, Horkheimer is clear that law does not resist automatically: it takes human agents to put the legal sphere into opposition to the political sphere. I illustrate this thought with respect to the recent history of federal abortion rights in the United States.

Unsafe termination of pregnancy where abortion is illegal: A Botswana context-specific study

Unsafe pregnancy termination contributes to morbidity and mortality among women globally. Despite Botswana's restrictive abortion laws, women continue to use unsafe abortion methods. This study aimed to explore factors that contributes to unsafe termination of pregnancies in Ngami sub-district, Botswana. A qualitative descriptive and exploratory research approach, using a phenomenological design, was applied. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with women admitted to the gynecological ward from June to August 2021. Data saturation was reached with the 12th participant. Data was analyzed thematically. The study revealed two major themes: factors contributing to unsafe abortions, and interventions to reduce unsafe abortions. The study underscores the global issue of unsafe abortion that leads to high morbidity and mortality, and long-term complications. An overall recommendation is for Botswana to reconsider its abortion law and aim to prevent unsafe abortions and reduce healthcare costs.

Extending Child Protection Law to the Unborn: Maternal Liability for Unborn Injury in Malaysia

The debate about the value of life is very important in discussions about abortion rights, with one side arguing that unborn children should be completely protected from harm. This view enhances with the widely held belief that pregnant women need strong legal protections to keep both of them and their unborn children safe. In Malaysia, the rights of unborn children are not clearly defined by law. The current laws try to protect pregnant women from harm caused by others but not from their own actions that could harm the unborn child. This lack of clarity leads to many legal, ethical, and social questions, especially concerning the rights of unborn children in cases of criminal acts. This article suggests a detailed legal approach that considers both scientific and medical perspectives. It argues that unborn children should be recognised as victims of crime, even when the crime is committed by their mothers.

Constitutionalising a Right to Abortion: Unveiling its Transformative Potential Amidst Challenges in Europe

Enshrining a right to abortion in the constitution – functions and effects of constitutionalisation – the fundamental nature of abortion and its link to core principles of constitutionalism – the instrumental-procedural function of constitutionalisation – limits to protection of abortion rights at the level of the European Court of Human Rights – unpredictability of judicial interpretation of fundamental rights – constitutional design pathways to specify the content and scope of a right to abortion – the potential of the standstill principle

My Body, My Choice? Examining the Distinct Profiles Underlying Attitudes Toward Abortion and COVID-19 Mandates

AbstractProtestors recently repurposed the abortion rights’ mantra, “my body, my choice,” to oppose COVID-19 mandates. But do those who oppose public health mandates fully support the right to choose? We answer this question by using exploratory analyses to identify the unique response patterns underlying support for abortion and COVID-19 mandates in random samples from the United States (Study 1; N = 2,331) and New Zealand (Study 2; N = 33,310). Latent profile analyses revealed a small subgroup in both countries (12.6% and 3.4% of the respective samples) who opposed mandates. Yet contrary to the “my body, my choice” rhetoric seen at anti-mandate protests, they also opposed abortion. Across both studies, those in the Anti-Mandate profile tended to be more religious, conservative, and distrustful of institutions. In Study 2, they were also low on cognitive consistency and high on conspiracy belief. Finally, the Anti-Mandate profile was opposed to free speech critical of both the United States and religion (Study 1), high on sexual prejudice (both studies), unsupportive of progressive protests (but supportive of reactionary protests; Study 2), and likely to vote for conservative parties (both studies). These results reveal the mobilization potential of the anti-mandate movement, uncover important contradictions within its members, and illustrate the nuanced ways in which opposition to gender policies (i.e., reproductive rights) coalesce with reactionary protests.

Gender Equality Through Abortion Rights: Exploring the Constitutional Framework and Social Justice

This paper examines the legal protection of the right to abortion under the U.S. constitutional framework and its impact on women's equality. The study traces the historical and jurisprudential development of the right to abortion and examines the impact of restricting this right on women's education, employment, and overall social justice. This is achieved through the analysis of relevant legal documents. The findings indicate that the protection of the right to abortion is crucial for the assurance of women's autonomy in matters of reproduction, and has a substantial influence on their educational and economic prospects. The paper concludes that the constitutional protection of abortion is a crucial step in achieving gender equality and social justice. It is incumbent upon governments and courts to promote gender equality and social justice by introducing legislation to protect the right to abortion and by creating social security systems. The following section will examine the aforementioned topic in greater detail.

‘Argumentative Disobedience’ as a Strategy to Confront Hate Speech

AbstractIn this paper, I examine argumentative strategies that social movements can follow to counter hate speech. I begin by reconstructing the disagreement space of the abortion debate in Argentina as a polylogue, identifying the protests of the social movement Pañuelos verdes as argumentative contributions. I then describe two different forms of hate speech used in response to the movement’s protests. I argue that hate speech discredits the position of Pañuelos verdes in the abortion debate and depicts their protests as social threats. Subsequently, I discuss three argumentative strategies that social movements can implement to address hate speech: arguing with hate speakers; advocating for a dialogue with restrictions; and opting for argumentative disobedience. Arguing with hate speakers aims to make hate speakers retract hate speech by exposing the undesirability of using hateful messages in argumentative exchanges. Advocating for a dialogue with restrictions aims to impose limited bans on public speech in order to ensure equal participation of arguers in argumentation. Finally, I propose the notion of argumentative disobedience to describe communicative responses to hate speech that aim to bring bystanders in line with the position of social movements in public debates.

Abortion Law Illiberalism and Feminist Politics in Comparative Perspective

Since the 1970s, a liberal politics has dominated comparative abortion law, one almost too ubiquitous to name. This article tracks departures from liberal abortion law in Europe and the Americas that have reshaped the field of comparative abortion law. Section 2 examines the repurposing of liberal abortion law for illiberal ends in a conservative moment of authoritarian governments and their anti-gender campaigns. Drawing on larger ideas of autocratic legalism, the article analyzes how governments and courts have used the features of liberal abortion law to revoke or defeat abortion rights. Section 3 examines the counter-emergence of a feminist protest politics that has abandoned liberal abortion law in a democratic remaking of society and state. Today, in abortion lawmaking through democratized institutions and in the unmaking of abortion law through direct action, feminist movements are reclaiming comparative abortion law and its politics.

Construing “Disability” into Article 14(2)(C) of the Maputo Protocol

This article analyses the possibility of an intersectional understanding of “disability” in relation to Article 14(2)(c) of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol). Adopted in July 2003 and enforced since November 2005, the Maputo Protocol is considered a ground-breaking international human rights instrument (Johnson 2023, 329). It is the first treaty to comprehensively protect the reproductive rights of African women, including the contentious issue of abortion (Maputo Protocol 2003, Article 14(2)(c); Banda 2006, 82).

Baruch Brody and the principle of justifiable homicide.

In a series of papers in the early 1970s and in his important book Abortion and the Sanctity of Human Life (1975), Baruch Brody offered what remains to this day one of the most philosophically rigorous contributions to the debate concerning the morality of abortion and the ethics of homicide more generally. In this paper I would like to critically examine Brody's argument that abortion is sometimes justifiable in some cases even when (1) one cannot claim self-defense, or (2) diminished responsibility, and (3) the abortion is a 'killing' rather than a 'not saving.' This justification, I argue, is limited to certain cases in which the life of the mother is at stake. The cautious principle which he finally formulates merits serious attention and consideration. While I find a great deal of value in Brody's discussion, I will argue that there are several difficulties with the principle of justifiable homicide he constructs. Accordingly, I will further amend and supplement his final version by offering my own alternative principle.

“Women's Lives Are on the Line, and Our Hands Are Tied”: How Television Is Reckoning With a Post-Dobbs America

BackgroundSince the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Supreme Court decision revoked federal protection for abortion rights, many states have restricted abortion. Although news media covers this shifting landscape through reporting, this article documents how entertainment content is responding to this new reality in its storytelling. MethodsThe sample is from a public database of abortion plotlines on American television (abortiononscreen.org). I separated the sample of 150 plotlines into two groups: plotlines that filmed and/or aired pre-Dobbs (January 2020–August 2022) and those that aired post-Dobbs (September 2022–December 2023). Coding occurred in Microsoft Excel. ResultsPost-Dobbs, there was an increase in procedural abortion depictions compared with pre-Dobbs, but no change in the consistently low number of depictions of medication abortion. The post-Dobbs sample included a 10% increase in teen characters compared with pre-Dobbs. Pre-Dobbs, the vast majority of plotlines (77%) did not portray any barriers to abortion care. Post-Dobbs, 33% depicted barriers. The most common reason for abortion seeking in both samples was age (11%). Pre-Dobbs, the next most common was a mis-timed pregnancy (10%). Post-Dobbs, the next most common was health concerns (11%). ConclusionsSince Dobbs, more television plotlines are portraying obstacles to abortion care, yet they continue to tell stories of white, non-parenting teenagers who make up a small percentage of real abortion patients. Plotlines overrepresent procedural abortion over the more common medication abortion. Depictions of health-related reasons for abortion seeking obscure more commonly provided reasons for abortions, such as mistimed pregnancies, caregiving responsibilities, and financial concerns. Considering the low levels of abortion knowledge nationwide, understanding what (mis)information audiences encounter onscreen is increasingly important.

Measuring Conditional Anonymity - A Global Study

The realm of digital health is experiencing a global surge, with mobile applications extending their reach into various facets of daily life. From tracking daily eating habits and vital functions to monitoring sleep patterns and even the menstrual cycle, these apps have become ubiquitous in their pursuit of comprehensive health insights. Many of these apps collect sensitive data and promise users to protect their privacy - often through pseudonymization. We analyze the real anonymity that users can expect by this approach and report on our findings. More concretely: We introduce the notion of conditional anonymity sets derived from statistical properties of the population; We measure anonymity sets for two real-world applications and present overarching findings from 39 countries; We develop a graphical tool for people to explore their own anonymity set. One of our case studies is a popular app for tracking the menstruation cycle. Our findings for this app show that, despite their promise to protect privacy, the collected data can be used to identify users up to groups of 5 people in 97% of all the US counties, allowing the de-anonymization of the individuals. Given that the US Supreme Court recently overturned abortion rights, the possibility of determining individuals is a calamity.

Disinformation and the Ghost of Margaret Sanger

This study sought to investigate the prominence of U.S. birth control pioneer and eugenicist Margaret Sanger in social media discourse through a critical disinformation studies lens. Using computational and qualitative analysis techniques, 60 months of public Facebook posts and Google search data were analyzed to explore the scope, reach, and engagement with messages that reference Sanger and examine how injustice frames utilizing Sanger’s historical ties to eugenics are being used today to misinform and disinform on abortion and other issues. Injustice frames featuring Sanger were deployed to portray abortion as a method for Black genocide; vilify feminism as racist, anti-woman, and anti-motherhood; and depict the Black Lives Matter social justice movement and cancel culture as hypocritical. This analysis also captured a moment in time when Sanger’s legacy was being reconsidered by Planned Parenthood, the organization she founded, indicating that a long-sought-after reckoning with the racist roots of the early birth control movement in the United States may be underway—with both predictable and unpredictable rippling effects in disinformative spaces.

The United States Abortion Controversy in the Context of Institutional Rivalry: The Interweaving of Justice, Politics, and Policy

This paper delves into the decades-long debate on abortion rights in United States, pointing out that its roots lie in the contradictions within the United States system. These contradictions manifest themselves through three main conflicts: judicial, political, and policy. Judicial conflicts revolve around the question of whether constitutional privacy rights should extend to abortion, with typical cases encompassing the pivotal rulings of Roe v. Wade and Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization. At the political level, the debate has been further exacerbated by bitter opposition between Republicans and Democrats, with opposing ideological positions on reproductive rights. Finally, the conflict between law and policy is reflected in the increasing polarization of abortion laws at the state level, leading to fragmentation of the national legal landscape. By analyzing these interrelated conflicts, this paper argues that the inherent contradictions within the United States system make the issue of abortion rights an ongoing and unresolved social issue.

Ethical and legal aspects of the abortion dispute in Italy in 2020-2023

The main goal of the article is to analyze the key elements of the current dispute over worldviews and politics in Italy concerning the ethical and legal aspects of various forms of abortion. The country on the Tiber River was one of the states around the world that widely liberalized abortion laws during the COVID-19 pandemic. In August 2020, the Italian Ministry of Health decided that pharmacological abortion – performed with the medical preparation RU-486 – should not be practiced at hospital gynaecology-obstetrics wards, but at day hospital facilities, with no requirement of hospitalization for women performing this type of abortion. Limited access to medical services in public and private healthcare facilities led to the practice of pharmacological abortion shifting largely from hospitals and clinics to pharmacies, private apartments, and homes. In 2021, pharmacological abortion in Italy accounted for 48.3% of all abortions performed under the current abortion law. In the face of the trivialization of the termination of pregnancy, Italian pro-life circles have taken a variety of measures to protect preborn life. One such initiative was the “Beating Heart” campaign, which looked at the possibility of showing the unborn child and its beating heart to the woman seeking an abortion. The analyses carried out in the article show that in the age of the Internet and the global village, it is not so much the legal norms that are increasingly important, but human free will and the awakening of people’s moral sensitivity by developing appropriate bioethical awareness at the societal level. In this context, the various initiatives currently implemented in Italy by pro-life circles to achieve these goals are of great significance. In addition, the abortion debate in Italy supplies a number of arguments for the need to extend the conscience clause to pharmacy personnel.

The ongoing and contentious coverage of abortion in a progressive context: a long-term cross-outlet assessment of Dutch abortion news (2000–2022)

Utilising automated content analysis with transformer-based topic modelling (BERTopic), this study examines cross-outlet variation in volume and topics over two decades (2000–2022) of abortion coverage in seven major daily newspapers in the Netherlands. Our findings reveal an ongoing coverage of abortion. Volume of coverage was notably highest in religious newspapers, indicating that these newspapers constitute a prominent voice in Dutch abortion debate. We discerned four distinct frames used in abortion news coverage. The first emphasised political developments as well as protest and advocacy related to abortion, framing the issue as a controversial political and moral topic. The second emphasised uncommon and problematic aspects of abortion, neglecting to present it as a commonplace and safe reproductive healthcare procedure. Two other frames seek to undermine women’s decision-making agency: the marginalisation of women’s personal perspectives; and the highlighting of prerequisites for abortion care. The media’s emphasis on a hierarchy of deservedness may consequently reduce public support for particular reasons for choosing abortion. Overall, our findings show that abortion remains a regularly covered and contentious issue, even amidst progressive legislation. This study highlights the need for balanced reporting that engages with women’s diverse personal experiences and perspectives.

“Childless cat ladies” and the 2024 US presidential election

Abstract Introduction : This study, part of a larger research project assessing the political views of people with pets (dogs and cats), investigates the political views and life satisfaction of women without children who own cats. The research aims to provide insights into this group’s perspectives on current issues, including abortion rights and voting intentions for the 2024 US presidential election. Methods : A cross-sectional online survey was conducted in August 2024, involving 236 American women cat owners without children, recruited through Prolific, an online marketplace for survey respondents. The survey assessed the sample’s demographics, life satisfaction using the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), concerns about current events, views on abortion, political affiliation, and voting intentions. Results : Participants mean SWLS score was 18.64 (SD = 7.74), comparable to other adult populations. The majority identified as liberal (71%) and Democrat (54%). This population’s top concerns included healthcare, abortion rights, climate change and environment, and government ethics. A total of 88.1% believed abortion should be legal in all or most circumstances. Regarding the 2024 election, 86.4% plan to vote, with 72.9% of those planning to vote indicating they support the Harris/Walz ticket. Discussion/Conclusion : The findings suggest that childless women with cats are a politically engaged population with predominantly liberal views. While study limitations include lack of racial and ethnic diversity in the sample, this research provides valuable insights into the political leanings and life satisfaction of an often-stereotyped group.

The Right to Life of the Unborn in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Through the Prism of the Drafting Process

After the 75th anniversary of adopting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we can state that some of its provisions still cause discussions about a basic and inherent right – the right to life. Getting a new “breath” after the Roe v. Wade case’s overturning, the battle between women’s abortion rights supporters and the protectors of the right to life for the unborn seems to get a new round. Worldwide experts in different fields start to find new arguments or remember the old ones to have solid proof in the discussions. It is too hard to find a more fundamental international document in the human rights field than the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which can be used in this case. Many scholars’ papers claim that the Declaration is only for an already-born person and does not cover the unborn one. However, such a vision is incorrect and causes many misunderstandings and false interpretations of the international basis of human rights protection. This work will try to dispel the myth that the Declaration was written only for a born person. After analyzing hundreds of documents from the Declaration drafting process, using historical facts and drafters’ statements, we hope to shed light on the real essence of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights about the right to life.