'Women deserve better': pro-woman issue framing of regulatory abortion policy in the states

From 2009-2013, nearly 800 such bills were introduced across the United States, representing an enormous, and unprecedented, rise in regulatory abortion bills. Why did this rise occur and what social and political conditions made this rise possible? In this dissertation, I argue that such regulations gained so much traction because, unlike previous bills that focused on the protection of fetal life, these new efforts utilized a newly emergent pro-woman frame. By pro-woman frame, I mean language that is used to justify abortion restrictions as in “women’s best interest.” In this dissertation, I document and analyze the rise of the pro-woman frame. I do so by analyzing 794 introduced bills over a five-year time period. I argue that the pro-woman frame differs from previous justifications for abortion restrictions, which focused on the defense of fetal life and because of this, new space opened up for conservative antiabortion lawmakers to make claims that they are fighting for women. Additionally, this frame gave conservative women lawmaker the opportunity to connect their descriptive and substantive representation.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical referencesby Amanda Robert