Whose Future, Whose Rights? Intersectional Threat and Support for Restricting Legal Abortion Post-Dobbs

• In Event: Reproductive Governance After Dobbs: Rights, Borders, and Criminalization

Abstract

In the wake of the 2022 reversal of federal abortion protections, public support for abortion access remains higher than ever, yet substantial opposition persists even as states expand reproductive surveillance, criminalization, and restrictions on bodily autonomy. We examine that opposition as supporting a broader regime of reproductive governance. Because abortion politics sits at the intersection of gender and racial boundaries, we argue that ideologies organized around perceived threats to male privilege and White privilege both shape abortion attitudes, and that the influence of racialized threat depends on individuals’ agreement with gendered threat ideologies. Using the 2024 American National Election Studies (ANES) Time Series survey, we reveal a conditional, interactive relationship between racist and sexist logics. We discuss how the racist and sexist intent of these ideologies help legitimate different forms of reproductive control directed toward women of color and White women.

Authors

• Kevin M. Drakulich, Northeastern University

• Ciela Capage, Northeastern University