Legislative Morality in the American States: The Case of Pre-Roe Abortion Regulation Reform

Theory: Do policies that regulate morality and/or evoke strong moral reactions have significantly different patterns of adoption in the states than those policies whose impacts are primarily economic? We use social learning theory and demand, resource, and constraint analysis to explore this question. Hypothesis: Contrary to Lowi's thesis that policy determines politics, there should be many similarities in the politics of these very dissimilar types of policy. Methods: An evaluation of three dimensions of abortion regulation reform from 1966 to 1972 (diffusion, reinvention, and determination) is used to test this hypothesis. Event history, hazard rate, and correlation analyses are applied to aggregate state data. A Guttman scale of abortion regulation permissiveness is developed. Results: Our central conclusions are that even distinct policies (morality versus economically based policies) share similar politics, and the three dimensions of the adoption process can be influenced in different ways by the type of policy under consideration.

[1]  Edward G. Carmines,et al.  The Two Faces of Issue Voting , 1980, American Political Science Review.

[2]  K. Meier,et al.  Politics and Morality: The Effect of Religion on Referenda Voting , 1980 .

[3]  Donald R. Songer,et al.  The Influence of Issues On Choice of Voting Cues Utilized By State Legislators , 1986 .

[4]  E. Ziegel,et al.  Bootstrapping: A Nonparametric Approach to Statistical Inference , 1993 .

[5]  Theodore J. Lowi,et al.  American Business, Public Policy, Case-Studies, and Political Theory , 1964 .

[6]  M. L. Whicker,et al.  Political and socioeconomic indicators of state restrictiveness toward abortion. , 1992, Policy studies journal: the journal of the Policy Studies Organization.

[7]  J. Mikesell.  Election periods and state tax policy cycles , 1978 .

[8]  R. Tatalovich,et al.  The politics of abortion: A study of community conflict in public policy making , 1981 .

[9]  Scott P. Hays,et al.  Innovation and Reinvention in State Policymaking: Theory and the Evolution of Living Will Laws , 1991, The Journal of Politics.

[10]  M. Aldenderfer,et al.  Cluster Analysis. Sage University Paper Series On Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences 07-044 , 1984 .

[11]  T. Dye,et al.  Politics, economics, and the public : policy outcomes in the American States , 1968 .

[12]  E. A. Cook,et al.  Generational Differences in Attitudes Toward Abortion , 1993, American politics quarterly.

[13]  L. Tribe.  Abortion: The Clash of Absolutes , 1990 .

[14]  J. Foster.  Regionalism and Innovation in the American States , 1978, The Journal of Politics.

[15]  Confusion, Diffusion, and Innovation. , 1977 .

[16]  K. Meier.  The Politics of Sin: Drugs, Alcohol and Public Policy , 1994 .

[17]  Virginia Gray,et al.  Innovation in the States: A Diffusion Study , 1973, American Political Science Review.

[18]  W. Gormley.  Regulatory Issue Networks in a Federal System , 1986, Polity.

[19]  R. L. Savage.  Diffusion Research Traditions and the Spread of Policy Innovations in a Federal System , 1985 .

[20]  E. Rogers,et al.  Diffusion of Innovations , 1964 .

[21]  P. Guilday,et al.  The book of the states , 1972 .

[22]  Virginia Gray,et al.  External Limits and Internal Determinants of State Public Policy , 1991 .

[23]  Theodore J. Lowi,et al.  Four systems of policy, politics and choice , 1972 .

[24]  Clyde Wilcox,et al.  Between Two Absolutes: Public Opinion And The Politics Of Abortion , 1992 .

[25]  William D. Berry,et al.  State Lottery Adoptions as Policy Innovations: An Event History Analysis , 1990, American Political Science Review.

[26]  Lawrence B. Mohr,et al.  Analysis of No-Difference Findings in Evaluation Research , 1989 .

[27]  D. Commerce.  Statistical abstract of the United States , 1978 .

[28]  N. Draper,et al.  Applied Regression Analysis , 1966 .

[29]  K. Meier,et al.  The Politics of Funding Abortion , 1993, American politics quarterly.

[30]  Jill Clark.  Policy Diffusion and Program Scope: Research Directions , 1985 .

[31]  Paul V. Warwick.  Rising Hazards: An Underlying Dynamic of Parliamentary Government , 1992 .

[32]  R. Ohsfeldt,et al.  PREDICTING STATE ABORTION LEGISLATION FROM U.S. SENATE VOTES: THE EFFECTS OF APPARENT IDEOLOGICAL SHIRKING , 1990 .

[33]  P. J. Conover,et al.  Battle Cries on the Family Front@@@The War Over the Family: Capturing the Middle Ground.@@@The Hearts of Men: American Dreams and the Flight from Commitment.@@@Feminism and the New Right: Conflict Over the American Family. , 1984 .

[34]  N. Kiefer.  Economic Duration Data and Hazard Functions , 1988 .

[35]  T. A. Smith.  The comparative policy process , 1975 .

[36]  S. K. Houseknecht,et al.  Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood , 1985 .

[37]  David Fairbanks.  Religious Forces and "Morality" Policies in the American States , 1977 .

[38]  Jack L. Walker.  Comment: Problems in Research on the Diffusion of Policy Innovations , 1973, American Political Science Review.

[39]  Steven J. Rosenstone,et al.  Forecasting Presidential Elections , 1983 .

[40]  D. Rubinfeld,et al.  Econometric models and economic forecasts , 2002 .

[41]  E. Ringquist.  Does Regulation Matter?: Evaluating the Effects of State Air Pollution Control Programs , 1993, The Journal of Politics.

[42]  K. Meier,et al.  State policies on funding of abortions: a pooled time series analysis. , 1992, Social science quarterly.

[43]  R. L. Savage,et al.  Policy Innovativeness as a Trait of American States , 1978, The Journal of Politics.

[44]  M. Goggin,et al.  Understanding the New Politics of Abortion , 1993, American politics quarterly.

[45]  Great Britain. Foreign Office..  Census of population , 1988 .

[46]  R. E. Dawson,et al.  Inter-Party Competition, Economic Variables, and Welfare Policies in the American States , 1963, The Journal of Politics.

[47]  G. Stigler.  The Theory of Economic Regulation , 2021, The Political Economy.

[48]  Planned Parenthood v Casey. , 1993, JAMA.

[49]  William D. Berry,et al.  Tax Innovation in the States: Capitalizing on Political Opportunity , 1992 .

[50]  Robert S. Erikson,et al.  Public Opinion and Policy Liberalism in the American States , 1987 .

[51]  P. Allison.  Event History Analysis , 1984 .

[52]  Thomas M. Holbrook,et al.  Electoral Competition in the American States , 1993, American Political Science Review.

[53]  M. Olasky.  The press and abortion, 1838-1988 , 1988 .

[54]  Matthew C. Moen.  School Prayer and the Politics of Life-Style Concern. , 1984 .

[55]  李幼升,et al.  Ph , 1989 .

[56]  L. Reagan.  "About to meet her maker": women, doctors, dying declarations, and the state's investigation of abortion, Chicago, 1867-1940. , 1991, Journal of American History.