The Politics of Reproductive Policy: Female Legislative Representation and Family Planning Spending in the United States

• In Event: 390 - Section on Race, Gender and Class Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 08. The Politics of Race, Gender and Class

Abstract

This research examines the relationship between the percentage of women’s state legislative representation and state expenditures for family planning in 2010 using regression techniques. The study addresses the question, "Do female legislators matter for family planning policy outcomes?" The results indicate that, controlling for other state-level factors, the percentage of women in the state legislature and the number of female legislators in legislative leadership positions did not significantly relate to the odds of a state spending a higher amount on state family planning services appropriations in 2010, relative to a lower amount. However, the percentage of a state’s nonwhite population predicted family planning appropriations. Consistent with the “contact hypothesis”--that greater exposure to racial/ethnic minorities leads to greater racial tolerance and, in turn, policy outcomes that are beneficial for those minorities--states with larger percentages of minorities spent more on family planning. Moreover, separate analyses indicated that the odds of spending more on family planning were lower in states with larger Catholic populations.

Author

• Julisa Amanda McCoy, University of California-Riverside