‭ The Politics of Timing:‬ ‭ Extracting New Meaning from Public Opinion Data on Abortion‬ ‭ Open Access

Cohen, Sydney (Spring 2025)

Permanent URL: https://etd.library.emory.edu/concern/etds/4j03d1237?locale=en
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Abstract

 This paper builds on previous research assessing the congruence between public opinion and abortion policy, and specifically asks if attitudes on abortion timing, a new feature of the debate,  are being captured by surveys. Two widely administered public opinion surveys, the General Social Survey (GSS) and American National Election Studies (ANES), ask abortion questions that do not have a timing dimension. To measure the timing assumptions made when respondents answer these questions, I created a survey that asked the GSS and ANES question along with a question that asks for abortion timing cutoffs in weeks. The results reveal correlations between certain GSS/ANES responses and gestational timing, and create crosswalks between the three question types.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

 Part 1: Introduction…………………………………………………………………..1-2

 Part 2: A Brief History……………………………………………….………………2-4

 Part 3: The New Abortion Debate……………………………………………….…..4-7

 Part 4: Literature Review……………………………………………………..……..7-10

 Part 5: Theory ……………………………………………….……………………..10-13

 Part 6: This Study……………………………………………………………..……13-18

 Part 7: Results ……………………………………………………………………...18-30

 Part 8: Takeaways and Discussion………………………………………………….30-32

 Part 9: Works Cited……………………………………………………………..….32-36

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