‘WOMEN DESERVE BETTER:’ PRO-WOMAN ISSUE FRAMING OF REGULATORY ABORTION POLICY IN THE STATES By AMANDA M. ROBERTI A dissertation submitted to the Graduate School-New Brunswick Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in Political Science Written under the direction of Dr. Cynthia Daniels And approved by ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ New Brunswick, New Jersey October 2017 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION ‘Women Deserve Better:’ Pro-Woman Issue Framing Of Regulatory Abortion Policy In The States By AMANDA ROBERTI Dissertation Director: Dr. Cynthia Daniels 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. ii ©2017 Amanda Roberti ALL RIGHTS RESERVED iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It was no easy task to research and write this dissertation, but I was fortunate enough to have the support of an incredible network of mentors, family, friends, professors, mentors, and colleagues all of whom I love so much. There was a uniquely talented and helpful group of colleagues that I leaned on many times at Rutgers, including officemates, classmates, and all of the beautiful folks in the Women and Politics program. They not only aided me in this project (Will and Kyle), but also were the circle of support that kept me in graduate school. I am forever indebted to them in a way that no amount of homemade Italian food, donuts, or chocolate can repay. Additionally, Dr. Susan Carroll has played a particularly special role in my advancement through the program by not only inspiring me with her groundbreaking career, but by helping me obtain funding through the years, and always being there with life advice. I consider myself extraordinarily lucky to have had a dissertation committee full of the most talented, supportive, and inspirational people. I would specifically like to thank Dr. Kira Sanbonmatsu and Dr. Beth Leech, whose careers and intelligence I so admire, for helping me hone my work, especially with regards to my methods, and for inspiring me beyond this project. I would also like to thank Dr. Tracy Osborn who was gracious enough to provider her expertise as my outside reader; it has been truly fantastic getting acquainted with such an incredible scholar. Of course, none of this dissertation would even be possible without the careful and continuous guidance of my dissertation chair, Dr. Cynthia Daniels. I can barely express how much intellectual and emotional labor she has put into preparing me to be a scholar—Cyndi fielded many frantic emails iv and phone calls from me when I was feeling unsure about my work—but from our first meeting I knew that I had met someone who would be a mentor for life. I can say now without a doubt, I am more confident, competent, and prepared due to her mentorship. Thank you for always pushing me, while also making me feel at home; it is the perfect balance. My two sisters and six sister-in-loves also helped immensely in giving me emotional support, and were always there to either ask me about my work, how I am doing, or just provide a welcome distraction. To my parents, Nina and Bob Roberti, I simply cannot thank them enough for everything they have done for me through the years, including being the best listeners on this planet. I could always count on a sympathetic and willing ear on the other line when I wanted to vent, bounce ideas around, or needed advice. Thank you mom and dad, for passing on your love for learning, creativity, and gregariousness to me. And thank you, mom, for being my first feminist icon. Finally, my truest partner in life, Stephen Campbell deserves special recognition for his years of support, love, kindness, advice, labor, and friendship during my graduate education. He saw me through every stressful, awful moment with a calm and wisdom I could never muster. He listened to me bitch endlessly about the same problems. He listened to countless practice presentations of my work so much so that he is nearly an expert on reproductive policy himself. He was always there to help me see the silver linings. And of course, he was always the first person with whom I celebrated any accomplishment, big or small. Thank you Steve-o, I love you. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract .............................................................................................................................. ii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iv List of Tables ................................................................................................................... vii List of Figures .................................................................................................................... ix Chapter 1: Introduction ........................................................................................................1 Chapter 2: Framing and Gender-based Regulatory Policy ................................................12 Chapter 3: Operationalization and Deployment of the Pro-Woman Frame ......................47 Chapter 4: Gender and Framing of Abortion Regulations .................................................82 Chapter 5: Conclusion ......................................................................................................127 Appendix A: Codebook ...................................................................................................140 Appendix B: Full Description of Regulatory Abortion Bill Types ..................................165 Appendix C: Percent of Women in State Legislatures During Time of Study ................176 References ........................................................................................................................179 vi LIST OF TABLES Chapter 3 Table 1: Abortion Bill Types and Definitions ...................................................................68 Table 2: Partisan Sponsorship ............................................................................................72 Table 3: Legislative Advancement ....................................................................................73 Table 4: Frame Usage In All Bills .....................................................................................74 Table 5: Frame Co-occurrence ...........................................................................................74 Table 6: Logistic Regression of Frame Use .......................................................................75 Table 7: Frame Subset Frequencies .................................................................................76 Table 8: Logistic Regression of Frame Subset Use .........................................................76 Table 9: Logistic Regression of Passed Bills and Bills with Activity ...............................78 Table 10: Logistic Regression of Passed Bills and Bills with Activity .............................79 Chapter 4 Table 1: Bill Types by Party .............................................................................................95 Table 2: Relationship Between Women Lawmakers and Frame Use ..............................96 Table 3: Relationship Between Women Lawmaker’s Involvement and Frame Subset Use .............................................................................................................98 Table 4: Relationship Between Women Primary Sponsors and Frame Use .....................99 Table 5: Relationship Between Women Co-Sponsors and Frame Use .............................99 Table 6: Relationship Between Women Primary Sponsors and Frame Subset Use .......100 Table 7: Relationship Between Women Co-sponsors and Frame Subset Use ................101 Table 8: Relationship Between Republican Women Lawmakers and Frame Use .........102 Table 9: Relationship Between Republican Women Lawmakers and Frame Subset Use 102 vii Table 10: Relationship Between Democratic Women Lawmakers and Frame Subset Use ...........................................................................................................103 Table 11: Relationship between Bills Passed Successfully and Frame ..........................106 Table 12: Relationship between Bills that Advanced Beyond Committee and Frame ...106 Table 13: Relationship between Male Lawmakers and Frame Use ................................108