The Sociopolitical Context of Abortion Bill Authorship in Texas

• Published in: Social currents 2021-08, Vol.8 (4), p.358-377
• Main Authors: Jackson, Aubrey L., Kenney, Alexis M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2329-4965; 2329-4973
• DOI: 10.1177/2329496520950789

This study examines abortion bills proposed in the Texas legislature between 1993 and 2015 to explore how legislators respond to the power resources of minorities versus the (supposed) threat that they pose and how these responses vary across partisan lines to hamper or further pro-life interests. To test competing hypotheses about the influences of women’s socioeconomic and political resources, and the representation of poor, Black, and Hispanic constituents, multilevel models analyze a key behavior that strategically demonstrates issue-positions, that is, authorship of abortion bills. The findings largely support power resources accounts but also detect minority threat processes, and they reveal that beyond mean differences in support for restrictions on legal abortions, Democrats and Republicans respond distinctly to their constituent contexts. This detailed look at an early stage of the legislative process in a major battleground state highlights the multifaceted nature of abortion politics and the importance of considering both partisan and minority interests, especially in the face of sociodemographic shifts within the state and beyond.