Citation
Kreitzer, Rebecca J. (2015). Politics and Morality in State Abortion Policy.
State Politics & Policy Quarterly, 15(1), 41-66.
Abstract
The number and variety of state policies regulating abortion each year is increasing. Opponents of abortion adopted a strategy of “legal but inaccessible” that has resulted in the passage of more than 700 state laws since the early 1990s. Despite being a very active area of policy making, we lack a coherent explanation for the proliferation of abortion policy. Scholars studying different policies at discrete moments in time have come to conflicting conclusions about how well theories of morality policy and representation explain abortion policy. Using an original dataset comprised of a near-universe of pro- and anti-abortion rights policy from 1973 to 2013, I establish the ways in which partisan control of the government and the moral preferences of constituents shape state policy. I find that anti-abortion rights policies are well explained by both theories but that pro-abortion rights policies are not well explained as a morality policy or with descriptive representation. In addition, I show the heterogeneous effect of representation across anti-abortion rights policies; Democratic women and governors decrease the probability of only certain anti-abortion rights policies.
URL
https://doi.org/10.1177/1532440014561868Reference Type
Journal Article
Year Published
2015
Journal Title
State Politics & Policy Quarterly
Author(s)
Kreitzer, Rebecca J.
Article Type
Regular
Continent/Country
United States of America
State
Nonspecific
ORCiD
Kretizer - 0000-0002-4485-9103
