This thesis aims to investigate if there have been any changes regarding the framing of abortion in American opinion-based articles. This since the abortion laws in America has gone through a lot of changes in 2022, in comparison to the previous year 2021. This has been done by conducting a qualitative text analysis with a quantitative categorizing of 67 opinion-based articles published by CNN and Fox News. A theoretical framing analysis tool created by Goffman (1974) was used. This is supplemented by Dahl’s third criteria in his theory of democracy (Dahl, 1989). Three categories wereconstructed from the previous research presented in this thesis, which were named the framing of autonomy, moral and emotion. First, the framing of autonomy frames the woman as fully capable of making reproductive decisions on her ownsince she is logical enough. Second, the framing of moral describes how life starts at conception and therefore makes abortion immoral and cruel and should be compared to murder or infanticide. At last, the framing of emotion portrayswomen as victims incapable of making their own decisions, and as individuals who should be protected from going through an abortion since it could harm her. Moreover, in the analysis of Fox News the results show that the framing ofmoral was prominent. Furthermore, in CNN all three framings were represented while the framing of autonomy was mostoften shown in the opinion-based articles. The result concludes that both CNN’s and Fox News’ coverage of abortion, could be seen as partly nuanced because of their somewhat multilateral way of framing the topic according to Dahl’s theory of democracy (1989).

Thesis advisor: James M. O'Toole / This dissertation explores the formative years of the right-to-life movement in the decade prior to Roe v. Wade and explains how early right-to-lifers built a vast and powerful movement in the 1960s and 1970s. Whereas most previous studies have focused on the connection between right-to-life organizing and the conservative ascendancy in religion and politics in the 1970s and 1980s, this dissertation studies the movement’s origins in state and local organizing in the years before Roe v. Wade and its growth into a national political crusade in the 1970s. During these years, grassroots activists fostered a vision for a broad-based right-to-life movement—a movement consisting of Americans from across the political and religious spectrums. This movement was made up of Catholics, Protestants, and Jews, Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and liberals, lay people as well as religious leaders—all of whom opposed legalized abortion for a range of reasons. Right-to-lifers believed their broad-based approach was the most effective way to fight abortion, and they embraced this diverse coalition, attacking abortion on a number of fronts with strategies ranging from legislative lobbying to alternatives to abortion to nonviolent direct action. Though their coalition eventually broke apart in the 1980s, this eclectic group of right-to-lifers built a dynamic and diverse movement and proved the powerful resonance of the abortion issue in American society. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: History.

A more conservative supreme court will likely have the chance to overrule Roe v. Wade. Many states have passed heartbeat laws that will probably be taken all the way to the supreme court, these cases will ask the supreme court to affirm fetal personhood, giving fetuses a constitutionally recognized right to due process and making abortion illegal. In this thesis, I will defend an expansion of protections for pregnant peoples through a socialized right to abortion.

In this thesis, I will argue that Doe v. Bolton, 410 U.S. 179 (1973), a United States Supreme Court case originating in Georgia, enabled all women access to abortion, including groups of marginalized women previously denied this right. An examination of the background of Doe uncovers the roles played by Georgia feminists and the medical community. By comparing Doe v. Bolton with the concurrent Supreme Court case of Roe v. Wade, I will shed light on the history of abortion in America as well as continuing divisions over abortion access in America today.

No description available.

This study aims to analyze the policy discourse held by interest groups in the United States following the repeal of Roe, the constitutional right to abortion, from a security perspective. Additionally, it seeks to examine what these organizations believe needs protection and against what, and the potential consequences for womenś health security in the USA. The study employs a security feminist and post-structuralist theoretical and methodological approach based on Bacchi’s (2023) problematization framework “What’s the problem represented to be?” (WPR) and Baldwin’s (1997) Security Concept to analyze how these interest groups perceive the abortion issue post-Roe and what this produces and reproduces. The analyst reveals a distinct and polarized view on the abortion issue regarding what should be protected and against what. These divergent perspectives influence how threats are perceived and what measures are advocated for. The study’s analysis also demonstrates that the politicized debate and the various problematizations may have adverse consequences for women’s health security, such as increased risks of unsafe abortions and lack of access to safe abortion care. Furthermore, the state-centric understanding of health policy may contribute to reproducing the stigma surrounding abortion and excluding women’s individual needs. This underscores the importance of questioning the prevailing health policy and its impact on women and other vulnerable groups, and raising the question: security for whom and for what?

No description available.

For the last few years, the question of legal abortion has been a big topic in USpolitics. With the two major US parties, Democrats and Republicans, havingdifferent opinions about the subject, and with a new abortion law introduced inJune of 2022.This study goes over the latest party platforms and different statements fromboth parties to get an understanding about how the both parties view abortionas a problem. With the use of critical discourse analysis as a methodology and“what’s the problem represented to be?” as an analytical framework, the studydoes not aim to present a solution to a problem, but instead show how the twoparties present the problem. Thereafter the ideologies feminism, conservatismand liberalism will be applied to see if it can be connected to how the partiespresent abortion as a problem. The results of the study reveal that theDemocratic party views abortion as a necessity for women's health and rights.The Democratic party does show signs of the ideologies feminism andliberalism in how they represent abortion. The Republicans view abortion assomething morally wrong and shows signs of conservatism.

On June 24, 2022, Roe v. Wade was overturned, effectively eliminating the federally protected right to an abortion. Following the overturning, several state-specific restrictions or bans on abortion were passed, creating increasingly difficult conditions for people seeking an abortion. Research shows that abortion bans and restrictions disproportionately affect victims of sexual and domestic violence. Hence, this study aims to understand the specific impact of the overturning of Roe v. Wade for victims of domestic and/or sexual violence by analysis of news articles. This issue has not been researched in depth, creating a gap in our understanding. The database NexisUni was used to collect relevant news articles for content analysis, and an iterative process was used to develop themes within the identified relevant articles. The findings show several impacts of reduced abortion access for victims, including reduced reproductive choice, exacerbation of victim trauma through law enforcement requirements, lack of access to legal abortion and sexual/domestic violence resources, increased severity of violence in abusive relationships, and negative consequences disproportionately affecting minoritized or marginalized populations. Understanding the implications of abortion legislation for survivors of violence provides insight into the effects of future policies and changes as states continue to enact abortion bans and restrictions throughout the country.

This research establishes a statistically significant connection between maternal mortality rates and abortion restrictions from a reproductive injustice perspective, integrating the theory of necropolitics. Using a time-series cross-sectional analysis of all 50 U.S. states from 2009 to 2019, this study highlights the impact of restrictive abortion policies during a period of intensified legislative activity, including pre-abortion counseling requirements, TRAP laws, and trigger laws. Data from the Guttmacher Institute's hostility scale and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation's maternal mortality statistics reveal that states with higher hostility toward abortion experienced increased maternal mortality. Notably, a 1% increase in state hostility is associated with a 0.45% rise in overall maternal mortality rates (p < 0.001). The analysis further demonstrates that each marginalized racial and ethnic group examined face heightened risks from higher abortion hostility, with maternal mortality rising among Hispanic women by 0.40% (p < 0.001); among non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaskan Native women increasing by 0.29% (p < 0.05); among non-Hispanic Asian, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacfic Islander women by 0.53% (p < 0.001); and non-Hispanic Black women by 0.39% (p < 0.001) per 1% increase in state hostility. However, the largest increase was found among non-Hispanic White women (p < 0.001). This study contributes to reproductive justice scholarship by incorporating a feminist and sociological perspective on the relationship between abortion restrictions and maternal mortality, particularly as moderated by race and ethnicity. The findings call for urgent policy interventions to dismantle systemic inequities in healthcare access, ensuring the protection of reproductive rights and the reduction of maternal mortality across all communities. / Master of Science / This study explores how abortion restrictions affect maternal mortality rates in the United States, focusing on the period between 2009 and 2019. It shows that stricter abortion laws, such as requirements for pre-abortion counseling, targeted regulations on abortion providers, and laws designed to ban abortion if federal protections are overturned, are linked to higher maternal death rates. States with more restrictive abortion policies had notable increases in maternal mortality, with even greater risks for certain racial and ethnic groups. For example, for every 1% increase in state-level hostility toward abortion, overall maternal mortality rose by 0.45%. The impact was pronounced for Hispanic women, non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaskan Native women, non-Hispanic Black women, and non-Hispanic Asian, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander women. Among non-Hispanic White women, the increase was even greater. By examining the relationship between abortion restrictions and maternal health through a feminist and sociological lens, this research highlights systemic inequalities in healthcare access. The findings emphasize the need for policies that protect reproductive rights and improve maternal health outcomes for all communities, especially those historically underserved.