After the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned long-standing rulings like Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey that protected abortion rights, we’ve put together a special collection of political science studies from APSA and Cambridge journals focusing on abortion politics and rights. This ruling has already shaken up abortion laws in several states across the US and kicked off a new wave of heated debates about abortion and reproductive freedom. Political science really helps us get why these changes matter and what might come next.
We’ve organized the collection into broad categories to help you dive deeper into different parts of how law, politics, and people are affected by abortion issues. If you’re interested, definitely check out the collection curated by Politics & Gender editors too.
Abortion before Roe
There are four articles that look at abortion policy and politics before Roe v. Wade made abortion legally protected back in 1973.
The politics after Roe
A few more pieces dig into how abortion politics worked under the Roe-Casey framework – looking at how people have rallied both for and against abortion rights, plus practical questions about getting access to abortions.
The Supreme Court’s role in abortion
The Supreme Court has played a huge part in shaping abortion politics. Several articles focus directly on how the Court’s decisions on abortion have evolved over time and how it deals with previous rulings in this area.
Abortion, SCOTUS picks, and elections
Three articles talk about how abortion influences Supreme Court nominations and whether court decisions around it might make the Court itself a hot topic during national elections.
Abortion in political fights & public opinion
With politics being so divided these days, political scientists have studied how abortion ties into party loyalty, identity, and strategies for mobilizing voters.
Religion’s connection to abortion politics
A number of scholars have explored how religion plays a big part in shaping views on abortion from different perspectives.
Pregnancy, women’s health & political issues
Political science research also covers various pregnancy-related topics tied to women’s health as well as complex situations like detained pregnant migrants who may end up giving birth to citizens.
How states are handling abortion laws now
Since the Court left it up to individual states to decide their own rules about abortion rights, some articles analyze state-level politics around this issue – offering useful insight for anyone wanting to predict where policies might head soon.
You can see the full set of articles on Cambridge’s website here.
