TY - JOUR
T1 - Abortion liberalization in world society, 1960–2009
AU - Boyle, Elizabeth H.
AU - Kim, Minzee
AU - Longhofer, Wesley
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.
PY - 2015/12
Y1 - 2015/12
N2 - Controversy sets abortion apart from other issues studied by world society theorists, who consider the tendency for policies institutionalized at the global level to diffuse across very different countries. The authors conduct an event history analysis of the spread ðhowever limitedÞ of abortion liberalization policies from 1960 to 2009. After identifying three dominant frames ða women’s rights frame, a medical frame, and a religious, natural family frameÞ, the authors find that indicators of a scientific, medical frame show consistent association with liberalization of policies specifying acceptable grounds for abortion. Women’s leadership roles have a stronger and more consistent liberalizing effect than do countries’ links to a global women’s rights discourse. Somewhat different patterns emerge around the likelihood of adopting an additional policy, controlling for first policy adoption. Even as support for women’s autonomy has grown globally, with respect to abortion liberalization, persistent, powerful frames compete at the global level, preventing robust policy diffusion.
AB - Controversy sets abortion apart from other issues studied by world society theorists, who consider the tendency for policies institutionalized at the global level to diffuse across very different countries. The authors conduct an event history analysis of the spread ðhowever limitedÞ of abortion liberalization policies from 1960 to 2009. After identifying three dominant frames ða women’s rights frame, a medical frame, and a religious, natural family frameÞ, the authors find that indicators of a scientific, medical frame show consistent association with liberalization of policies specifying acceptable grounds for abortion. Women’s leadership roles have a stronger and more consistent liberalizing effect than do countries’ links to a global women’s rights discourse. Somewhat different patterns emerge around the likelihood of adopting an additional policy, controlling for first policy adoption. Even as support for women’s autonomy has grown globally, with respect to abortion liberalization, persistent, powerful frames compete at the global level, preventing robust policy diffusion.
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U2 - 10.1086/682827
DO - 10.1086/682827
M3 - Article
C2 - 26900619
AN - SCOPUS:84947580453
SN - 0002-9602
VL - 121
SP - 882
EP - 913
JO - American Journal of Sociology
JF - American Journal of Sociology
IS - 3
ER -