Abortion Rights – What is happening and where is it happening?
There’s a war on abortion rights for women and it’s happening in the United States. A wave of laws was passed in 2019 stirring up one of the most divisive issues in America. Abortion bans keep popping up across the States, and many people are left to wonder where their states stand.
Here’s a look.
Note: Information current as of May 31.
History
Once upon a time, abortion was just basic healthcare and the services were marketed openly. Producing abortion pills were a booming business. People did not take to the streets to scream in protest and clinics posted advertisements about abortion on newspapers and even the radio.
That isn’t a fairytale and it all truly did happen in the mid 19th century according to Leslie Reagan’s 1996 book on abortion history.
It’s an entirely different story before and after the mid 19th century. The legality and availability of abortions were been threatened continuously by forces that would denigrate women’s basic fundamental rights.
When the United States gained independence, most states in the US, applied the English’s common laws to abortion. This meant that abortion was not permitted after the quickening (the start of fetal movements, felt 15–20 weeks after conception approx)
In 1900, abortion was considered a felony in every state. However, Some states included provisions that allowed abortions in limited circumstances like to protect the woman’s life or to terminate pregnancies arising from rape or incest.
Abortion and Religion:
In 1588, Pope Sixtus V declared all abortion murder. 3 years later, a new pope found this law “unworkable” and allowed early abortions.
300 years later, The Catholic Church under Pius IX declared all abortion murder again. Now, This standard that was declared in 1869, remains the official position of the church even now.
Who’s behind it now?
Janet Porter: An author, a radio talk show host and the founder of a network of organizations called Faith2Action.
The group identifies itself the “birthplace of the heartbeat bill” and Porter as the author.
According to Porter, “God first put this idea in my heart in November 2010. When a heartbeat is detected, the baby is protected, It’s all about saving babies.”
Porter became the legislative director of Ohio Right to Life, successfully lobbying for restrictions and her home state was the first to introduce a “heartbeat bill” in 2011.
Conservatives: The anti-abortion movement was born, and is led largely by conservative religious groups.
How are people reacting? Here’s what we found!
There is a wealth of data out there ready to be collected and here’s what we found using Social Animal.
NOTE: All data points on this list were gathered using Social Animal.
When did the keyword/search term “Abortion rights” start trending?
Answer: July 2018(approx) – Since Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination.
Total Number of articles PUBLISHED with the keyword “abortion rights” since July 2018: 1985
Number of articles SHARED about “Abortion”: 2755
Number of articles PUBLISHED with keywords related to “abortion”: 20,852
The average number of shares for TOP articles featuring “Abortion rights”: 0.5 million shares
Shares Skyrocketed on:
- May 15th, 2019 – 4,249,744 shares – Alabama’s Republican governor, Kay Ivey, signed the legislation making abortion a crime at any stage of pregnancy on May 14th, 2019.
- January 23rd, 2019 – 3,962,963 shares – New York passes a law allowing abortions at any time if the mother’s health is at risk on January 22nd, 2019.
Number of Twitter profiles that have “Pro-Life” in their bios: 18,000 (approx)
Number of Twitter profiles that have “Pro-Choice” in their bios: 5000 (approx)
Positive VS Negative Sentiments
People are drawn more to negative headlines than positive ones, says psychologist Tom Stafford. This “negativity bias” is clearly shown in the number of shares news articles received.
The Average number of shares for POSITIVE* articles: 0.8million
The Average number of shares for NEGATIVE* articles: A Whopping 1.3million
Most POPULAR Social Media used to vent: TWITTER
TOP hashtags that are trending:
TOP 10 articles with the most shares:
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Find top articles, most shares, and authors for ANY keyword by signing up for a FREE TRIAL.
Top Domains and authors with the most engagement
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Top Authors with the most engagement for the keyword “abortion”
Analyze different websites and find what they blog about the most! Click here to join Social Animal.
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We Have No Idea How Scary Our Abortion Future Will Get.
What does the future for abortion rights look like?
Let’s just say that there is no guarantee that the supreme court will protect the right to terminate a pregnancy.
Abortion still remains legal in some states, because many advocates have sued to stop these measures, and courts have recognized that the laws are clearly unconstitutional.
The right-to-choose in America is under serious threat with an increasingly conservative Supreme Court, there could be devastating consequences if Roe v Wade is overturned.
For those who are curious, here’s how we used Social Animal to get all that data…
- A simple search for articles under the keywords – “abortion” and “abortion rights” led us to the sheer number of shares received, other related keywords, and people related to the above-mentioned keywords.
- We then analyzed the number of shares for different articles using the Positive/Negative/Neutral Sentiments feature.
- We also found how celebrities identified themselves(as mentioned in the infographic) using Social Animal’s Influencer feature, which also allowed us to determine the number of Twitter profiles that identify as “Pro-life” or “Pro-Choice”.
- This led us to “Insights”, which told us the exact dates when maximum shares occurred, top domains and top authors for that keyword based on the number of shares they’ve received.