The Pro-Life Movement In Their Own Words: Rhetoric Matters

In this research we will conduct a historical reflection of the relationship between abortion, race and religion. We will be looking at the history of race and how that broadly relates to abortion. Particular focus will be on the history of different religious groups in Wisconsin and their attitudes towards abortion. We chose to focus primarily on Christian groups as we found early on these are the most vocal pro-life groups in Wisconsin. We then will explore these relationships and common themes we find and conduct a rhetorical analysis by applying the historical contexts to the language in Wisconsin’s pro-life movement. By categorizing the language used in pro-life artifacts, we can investigate how the pro-life groups view women, minorities, and religion. These observations should reflect the verifiable attitudes of those opposed to abortion. Our intent is to use these documents produced in the media by these groups to better understand the current political climate on abortion in Wisconsin. We will organize the language and media we consume into categories which are based off the themes found in our historical reflection. After we complete our research our intention is to present it at the undergraduate conference using a poster to display our findings. As this is an ongoing project and the conclusions have not been finalized. A poster would best show the progress made thus far in the research process