The Politics of Problem Definition: Abortion Policy in Republican-Controlled Louisiana

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Please see attached.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

We are so grateful for your thoughtful review of our work. In particular, you are so right to recommend including Nancy Davis’ own voice into the chapter. We have included this now as you recommend in addition to a specification about her diagnosis.

We have also incorporated the very relevant work of Deborah Stone (1989) throughout as her insights describe precisely the aspect of policymaking we hope to illustrate. We appreciate the prompt to recognize her pioneering work.

We have incorporated an explanation of why the reproductive justice framework is crucial to understanding the context of reproductive injustice in New Orleans and have cited Kimala Price, Tonya Williams, and Zakiya Luna as suggested. In particular, we point out the complexity of the racial narrative in Louisiana in light of powerful Black and white leaders of the anti-abortion movement in the state. This makes it unique even within the South as we now note and constricts the suggested strategy of leveraging anti-racism by abortion rights activists.

We have now acknowledged that racial disparities in birth outcomes did not factor in heavily to the debates and called for further research to investigate why this might be the case. We will continue to pursue this in future iterations of this research for our own part as well.

We have attempted to sharpen our thesis and insert it both more clearly in the introduction and conclusion.

Reviewer 2 Report

Very engaging and timely paper. This paper is relevant to the field and examines the use of language in the Louisiana legislature to see what kind of legislation around abortion access is passed or not based on the language used by legislators. The author examines various Louisiana laws to examine the success or failure of these laws based on the use of language, like using the language of "fetus" or "baby." The paper is grounded in the aftermath of the Dobbs decision and examines a politically conservative state with many anti-abortion policies. It addresses what is lost when thinking of abortion as a privacy issue rather than a healthcare issue and highlights these crucial points throughout. It considers the approaches for legislation and the importance of language choice when strategizing for abortion policy. 

It is well-researched and cited, with an interesting study highlighting the role of language for both sides of the abortion debate in moving the needle on abortion rights. 

The paper is well-written, clear, and easy to follow the points in the methods, discussion, and conclusion. Solid exploration of the role of right-wing and conservative administrations and where they have moved with abortion policy. This paper is very timely and instructive and will be a part of many conversations on abortion policy in a post-Dobbs world. 

This paper is going to be very important for other scholars to look to as they examine the push for anti-abortion policies in states across the country. I could see other scholars following your methods to explore legislation in different states. 

Excellent research, well-written, and clear. My comments are very minor. You use both antiabortion and anti-abortion, which is throughout the paper. Choose one version for the paper. 

Engaging conclusions. 

Author Response

Thank you so much for this positive review. We so appreciate your support for our work and hope that you are correct in your predictions that further work will be sparked as a consequence of our inquiry. We have made your suggested correction and made uniform our references to anti-abortion throughout.