Intense Ambivalence

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. J Zigerell ◽  
Heather Marie Rice
Keyword(s):  
Central Element ◽  
Abortion Policy ◽  
Question Wording ◽  
Good Question ◽  
American Law ◽  
Abortion Attitudes ◽  
Life Options ◽  
Pro Life ◽  
Pro Choice

This chapter investigates a new set of measures of attitudes about abortion policy. It argues that the standard ANES battery violates several principles of good question wording and also fails to take into account the timing of abortion, which is a central element of American law and current discourse. Strikingly different conclusions about the electorate's views about abortion emerge in the comparison of the standard and new items: whereas the traditional item indicates that a majority of Americans are opposed to abortion in all circumstances, or support it only in the limited rape–incest–life options, the new items suggest a symmetry in abortion attitudes, with as many Americans supporting the extreme pro-choice as the extreme pro-life options.

Before Reagan: The Development of Abortion’s Partisan Divide

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 1031-1047
Author(s):  
Neil A. O’Brian
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Republican Party ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Political Mobilization ◽  
Vote Choice ◽  
The Political ◽  
Mass Public ◽  
Pro Life ◽  
Pro Choice

What explains the alignment of antiabortion positions within the Republican party? I explore this development among voters, activists, and elites before 1980. By 1970, antiabortion attitudes among ordinary voters correlated with conservative views on a range of noneconomic issues including civil rights, Vietnam, feminism and, by 1972, with Republican presidential vote choice. These attitudes predated the parties taking divergent abortion positions. I argue that because racial conservatives and military hawks entered the Republican coalition before abortion became politically activated, issue overlap among ordinary voters incentivized Republicans to oppose abortion rights once the issue gained salience. Likewise, because proabortion voters generally supported civil rights, once the GOP adopted a Southern strategy, this predisposed pro-choice groups to align with the Democratic party. A core argument is that preexisting public opinion enabled activist leaders to embed the anti (pro) abortion movement in a web of conservative (liberal) causes. A key finding is that the white evangelical laity’s support for conservative abortion policies preceded the political mobilization of evangelical leaders into the pro-life movement. I contend the pro-life movement’s alignment with conservatism and the Republican party was less contingent on elite bargaining, and more rooted in the mass public, than existing scholarship suggests.

Pro-Life or Pro-Choice? Humanistic Buddhists’ Voices Surrounding Abortion in Contemporary Taiwan

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-80
Author(s):  
Grace Cheng-Ying Lin
Keyword(s):  
Wide Spectrum ◽  
Life Forms ◽  
Buddhist Philosophy ◽  
Reproductive Politics ◽  
Discursive Analysis ◽  
The People ◽  
The Law ◽  
Humanistic Buddhism ◽  
Pro Life ◽  
Pro Choice

In Taiwan, abortion was legalized in 1984. This paper examines the voices surrounding abortion expressed by monasteries in Humanistic Buddhism, a prominent Buddhist philosophy practiced in modern Taiwan. Humanistic Buddhism emphasizes that it is a “religion of the people.” However, in addition to the law of karma and causality, the value of all life forms is prioritized based on the ethics of “non-harming (ahimsā).” When some monasteries insist that abortion is killing, resulting in karmic retribution, some express sympathy with a woman’s decision to abort. When some monasteries promote a newly popularized ritual to appease aborted fetuses, some are keenly critical of the exploitation of women and manipulation of scriptures. Through a discursive analysis, this paper demonstrates the wide spectrum of Buddhist narratives in response to reproductive politics embedded in the conflicts between modernity and tradition, as well as locality and globality.

scholarly journals Pro-Life and Pro-Choice Contentions in Joyce Carol Oates’s: A Book of American Martyrs

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 30-34
Author(s):  
Weini Wang
Keyword(s):  
Karl Marx ◽  
Culture Industry ◽  
Religious Culture ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Dominant Group ◽  
Religious Ideology ◽  
Per Se ◽  
Pro Life ◽  
Pro Choice ◽  
Name Of God

This thesis probes into the issue on pro-life and pro-choice contentions in Joyce Carol Oates’s: A Book of American Martyrs. Karl Marx explains how capitalists maneuver the deferred redemption intrinsic of religion per se to exploit and oppress workers and re-enforce capitalism proper. In the novel, the transformation of Luther and Gus provides a convincible account for Luther’s frenzy and Gus’s irreligion. This thesis discusses argues that the workers are unconsciously subjected to the governance of the dominant group via the conceptualization of religious ideology and religious culture industry. It should be condemned to impose one’s belief on the others, or even to commit murder ruthlessly in the name of God.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Fran Amery
Keyword(s):  
Sex Selection ◽  
Reproductive Decisions ◽  
Abortion Law ◽  
Abortion Debate ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Abortion Politics ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Pro Life ◽  
Pro Choice

This chapter gives a brief overview of the current terrain of abortion debate in the UK, covering calls for decriminalisation as well as debates on sex-selection, disability and pre-abortion counselling. It argues that the classic image of abortion politics as a war between ‘pro-life’ and ‘pro-choice’ actors cannot adequately accommodate these recent developments – nor does it fit with how abortion debates have actually unfolded in Britain historically. Instead, it offers an interpretation of abortion law as resting on a coalition between government and medical actors formed to govern women’s reproductive decisions. The chapter closes with an overview of the book.

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