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Abortion policy in the fifty states: A comparative analysis
Title
Abortion policy in the fifty states: A comparative analysis.
Creator
Parsons, Sharon Kay, Florida Atlantic University, Pritchard, Anita
Abstract/Description
This study investigates the influence of state characteristics, socioeconomic, cultural and political, on the variation of abortion legislation and accessibility in the American states. State discretion in abortion issues, historically and including the present time, has resulted in a lack of uniformity of regulations in the 50 states and a wide variance of accessibility to abortion services across the nation. Although abortion is considered one of the most divisive and controversial policy...
Show moreThis study investigates the influence of state characteristics, socioeconomic, cultural and political, on the variation of abortion legislation and accessibility in the American states. State discretion in abortion issues, historically and including the present time, has resulted in a lack of uniformity of regulations in the 50 states and a wide variance of accessibility to abortion services across the nation. Although abortion is considered one of the most divisive and controversial policy issues, it has largely been neglected in the literature as a public policy study at the state level. Therefore, a systematic and empirical basis for explaining the variance in abortion laws and accessibility is also lacking in the research. This study attempts to fill in that gap and the results of the analysis of the data reveals several important findings. First, there is little indication that accessibility is related to state legislation on abortion. Second, the measures for current legislation are not highly correlated. Each policy appears to be a separate issue for state legislators. Third, socioeconomic characteristics, as expected, are important to the pre-Roe measures of legislation and abortion rates. These characteristics are also important to recent abortion rates, Medicaid funding for abortions, and service provision. However, certain political variables, in particular public opinion/ideology, are also important to the variance of current measures. Fourth, traditional state characteristics do not explain the variance in two of the legislative variables included in the study--the number of post-Roe restrictions passed and parental notification/consent requirements. And last, religion, as measured by denominations or religious groups with an anti-abortion platform, does not play an important role in explaining variation in abortion laws or accessibility, contrary to the predictions. A larger percentage of Catholics is associated with increased service provision and less restrictive Medicaid funding for abortions. Fundamentalists are not important to the variation of either legislation or accessibility. This finding, in particular, is in contrast to not only the predictions of this study but also to the popular beliefs and assertions on the subject.
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Date Issued
1991
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/12285
Subject Headings
Women's Studies, Political Science, General, Political Science, Public Administration
Format
Document (PDF)
Between the lines: The politics of passenger rail service, 1958--1970
Title
Between the lines: The politics of passenger rail service, 1958--1970.
Creator
Alcorn, Aaron Luke, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of History
Abstract/Description
For many modern Americans, the passenger train is but a distant memory, an artifact of the past. In the postwar United States, the status of passenger rail service deteriorated significantly. There were many reasons for this decline, but large subsidies enabled by federal highway and air transportation policies greatly favored alternate forms of traffic at the passenger train's expense. Realizing that rail service in this country was either on the verge of extinction or nationalization,...
Show moreFor many modern Americans, the passenger train is but a distant memory, an artifact of the past. In the postwar United States, the status of passenger rail service deteriorated significantly. There were many reasons for this decline, but large subsidies enabled by federal highway and air transportation policies greatly favored alternate forms of traffic at the passenger train's expense. Realizing that rail service in this country was either on the verge of extinction or nationalization, Congress and President Richard M. Nixon sought to preserve a modest network of passenger trains through the Rail Passenger Service Act of 1970, which created the publicly subsidized corporation Amtrak. This study looks at changing transportation policies following World War II and ultimately identifies the role that politics played in the decline of the passenger train and the creation of Amtrak.
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Date Issued
2001
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/12785
Subject Headings
History, United States, Political Science, Public Administration, Transportation
Format
Document (PDF)
Utopian/Dystopian Thought Experiments and the Potential For a New Strateb')' of Inquiry in Public Administration
Title
Utopian/Dystopian Thought Experiments and the Potential For a New Strateb')' of Inquiry in Public Administration.
Creator
Pressley, Cindy L., Florida Atlantic University, Patterson, Patricia M., College for Design and Social Inquiry, School of Public Administration
Abstract/Description
The purpose behind this dissertation is the creation, development, and illustration of a new strategy of inquiry in public administration. This new strategy of inquiry is a utopian/dystopian thought experiment. A utopian/dystopian thought experiment should provide its user with a way to develop a new/different viewpoint with which to examine an administrative activity. A researcher begins with an original viewpoint and should then develop a new/different viewpoint, a utopian/dystopian...
Show moreThe purpose behind this dissertation is the creation, development, and illustration of a new strategy of inquiry in public administration. This new strategy of inquiry is a utopian/dystopian thought experiment. A utopian/dystopian thought experiment should provide its user with a way to develop a new/different viewpoint with which to examine an administrative activity. A researcher begins with an original viewpoint and should then develop a new/different viewpoint, a utopian/dystopian viewpoint, by engaging in a utopian/dystopian thought experiment. A utopian/dystopian thought experiment is developed in this dissertation by bringing together elements from utopian literature and scientific thought experiment literature using a public administration point of view. The research approach used in this dissertation is a three-phase process that involves reviewing and connecting pertinent literatures, using imagination and the process of writing to create a utopian/dystopian thought experiment, and illustrating and examining a utopian/dystopian thought experiment in public administration. In this dissertation, I seek to create a utopian/dystopian thought experiment as a new strategy of inquiry that is developed specifically for public administration. A utopian/dystopian thought experiment should provide an additional tool to the researcher who is seeking to expand the viewpoints through which the researcher can examine administrative activities.
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Date Issued
2008
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00000610
Subject Headings
Public administration--Philosophy, Place (Philosophy), Policy sciences--Economic aspects, Political planning--United States, Postmodernism--Social aspects
Format
Document (PDF)