Making the Right Choice: the polarized US abortion debate and its transnational implications

Sammanfattning: The abortion debate in the United States has become increasingly polarized where the legality and morality of abortion is continuously discussed. This has given rise to an abortion movement and countermovement, commonly referred to as the pro- choice movement and pro-life movement. These movements are furthermore working transnationally to promote their agendas and contribute to social and political change across nation borders. Following a critical approach to research, this study focused on two nonprofit organizations based in the United States placed at oppositional parts of the abortion movement, Planned Parenthood Global and Heartbeat International, and how they use human rights-based language to construct their arguments. Due to the transnational aspects of these organizations, this study further investigated how the organizations transfer aspects of the polarized United States abortion debate into their transnational work. Through applying framing processes within social movement theory, and postcolonial insights, a qualitative thematic document analysis of the organizations’ official websites was conducted. The results presented significant incorporation of rights-based arguments, particularly within the pro-abortion organization. Within the anti-abortion organization, rights-based language was found to have stronger ties to religion than to the international human rights framework. Rights-based language was also found to be overlapping between the two organizations’ communication, which suggests processes of frame extension and frame amplification on both sides. Furthermore, characteristics of the United States abortion debate was prevalent throughout both sides’ transnational communication. These findings further showcase power relations across North-South borders and suggest that communicative power of the Global North, specifically the United States, have implications in communities in the Global South. The results contribute to the existing body of research within abortion movements in the United States and transnationally, as well as the field of social movement research.