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Series:   Elements in Gender and Politics

Abortion Attitudes and Polarization in the American Electorate

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2025

Erin C. Cassese ,
Heather L. Ondercin  and
Jordan Randall
Erin C. Cassese
Affiliation:
University of Delaware
Heather L. Ondercin
Affiliation:
Appalachian State University
Jordan Randall
Affiliation:
Appalachian State University

Summary

About two-thirds of Americans support legal abortion in many or all circumstances, and this group finds itself a frustrated majority following the Supreme Court's 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization which overturned the legal precedent set in Roe v. Wade. Previous scholarship argues intense minorities can secure favorable policy outcomes when facing off against a more diffuse and less motivated majority, creating incongruence between public opinion and policy. This Element focuses on the ways that preference intensity and partisan polarization have contributed to the current policy landscape surrounding abortion rights. Using survey data from the American National Election Studies, the authors identify Americans with intense preferences about abortion and investigate the role they play in electoral politics. They observe a shift in the relationship between partisanship and preference intensity coinciding with Dobbs and speculate about what this means for elections and policy congruence in the future.
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Keywords

public opinionpolarizationabortionreproductive rightsaffectvoter mobilizationcampaigns and elections
Type
Element
Information
Series: Elements in Gender and Politics
Online ISBN: 9781009533119
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication: 16 January 2025

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