CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2024
| Author | Phillips, Caitlin Ann |
|---|---|
| Title | A Content Analysis of Republican Anti-Abortion Rhetoric by Gender in Post-Roe America |
| Summary | This thesis sets out to examine the gendered dimensions of Republican anti-abortion rhetoric in the context of post-Roe America, by analyzing the legislative debates surrounding H.R. 8297, the Ensuring Access to Abortion Act of 2022. Following the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, this bill was one of two that attempted to grant federal protections for abortion, which anti-abortion Republicans stood firmly against. By utilizing a qualitative content analysis of 15 speeches–10 delivered by Republican men and 5 by Republican women– this study seeks to uncover the differences and similarities in rhetorical strategies of the Republican Representatives who delivered the speeches. While many studies focus on the differences between the two political parties, Republicans and Democrats, it can also be valuable to understand the nuances of intra-party rhetoric, and highlight the role that gender, and political party’s interpretations of gender can play in shaping abortion discourse within the party. The results of the study find that the most frequent anti-abortion rhetoric from Republican men is based on fetal personhood, political polarization, and morality/religion, and the most frequently used rhetoric from Republican women is based on the fetal personhood, pro-woman framing. Overall, the Republican women in this study used the public health, rights frame, racism frame and pro women frame more frequently than Republican men, and Republican men used the morality/religion, fetal personhood, medical misinformation and political polarization frames more frequently. |
| Supervisor | Krizsán, Andrea |
| Department | Public Policy MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2024/phillips_caitlin.pdf |
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