Christian Nationalism and Abortion
Christian Nationalism and Abortion
Abortion has become one of the most important issues connecting conservative Christianity, electoral politics, judicial activism, and debates over Christian nationalism in the United States. Research on Christian nationalism generally distinguishes it from ordinary Christian belief or political participation. Christian nationalism refers more specifically to an ideology that links American national identity with Christianity and favors giving Christian beliefs, symbols, institutions, or cultural norms a privileged role in public life.
The relationship between Christian nationalism and abortion is complex. Contemporary studies frequently find that stronger Christian-nationalist beliefs are associated with greater opposition to legal abortion and, in some studies, support for more restrictive abortion policies. Research has also connected Christian nationalism with traditional gender roles, patriarchal family structures, pronatalism, concerns about demographic change, and broader ideas about social hierarchy and national identity.
At the same time, opposition to abortion cannot simply be equated with Christian nationalism. Catholic opposition to abortion predates the modern Christian-nationalist movement by decades, many Christians oppose abortion for theological or ethical reasons without embracing nationalist politics, and some Christians support abortion rights. Jewish, Muslim, mainline Protestant, Black Protestant, Catholic, evangelical, and religiously unaffiliated Americans also differ substantially in their views of abortion.
The history therefore involves several overlapping developments: changing Christian teaching and activism surrounding abortion, the rise of the Religious Right, partisan realignment, conservative legal organization, debates over gender and family, and the emergence of Christian nationalism as a distinct subject of social-scientific research.
Abortion Before the Modern Religious Right
American religious attitudes toward abortion have changed substantially over time. Catholic institutions developed a strong and organized opposition to abortion well before the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade in 1973. Protestant approaches were historically more varied.
Before Roe, some Protestant clergy supported liberalization of abortion laws and participated in organizations that helped women obtain abortions. Other Protestants regarded abortion as morally troubling but accepted exceptions or did not view government prohibition as the appropriate response.
Historical research therefore challenges the idea that American Christianity always possessed a single unified political position on abortion. Evangelical attitudes before the 1970s included significant disagreement, and abortion did not initially occupy the central place in evangelical political identity that it later acquired.
The development of the modern anti-abortion coalition gradually brought Catholics and conservative Protestants into closer political cooperation. This alliance became one of the foundations of the emerging Religious Right.
The Rise of the Religious Right
During the 1970s and 1980s, conservative evangelical Protestants became increasingly active in national politics. Abortion became one of several issues contributing to this mobilization, along with school policy, feminism, the Equal Rights Amendment, sexuality, gay rights, religious education, and perceptions of cultural secularization.
Historians disagree over precisely how abortion should be understood within the origins of the Religious Right.
One interpretation emphasizes disputes over federal regulation of racially discriminatory Christian schools and argues that these conflicts helped motivate conservative evangelical political organization before abortion became its most visible issue. Another interpretation cautions against treating abortion merely as a later substitute for conflicts over segregation. Historical evidence indicates that many evangelical laypeople had become increasingly concerned about abortion before some national evangelical leaders made the issue a central political cause.
These interpretations are not necessarily mutually exclusive. The emergence of the Religious Right involved numerous institutions, constituencies, political entrepreneurs, theological changes, and social controversies.
By the late twentieth century, however, abortion had clearly become one of the principal issues binding conservative evangelical activists to the Republican Party.
From Roe v. Wade to Partisan Realignment
The Supreme Court's 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade established constitutional protection for abortion under federal law. The decision transformed abortion politics by shifting much of the conflict toward the federal judiciary.
Over subsequent decades, anti-abortion organizations developed strategies focused on elections, legislation, judicial appointments, constitutional interpretation, and incremental restrictions on abortion. Conservative Christian organizations became important participants in this movement.
During the same period, abortion became increasingly aligned with the American party system. Republicans became more closely associated with abortion restrictions, while Democrats became more closely associated with abortion rights.
This alignment was gradual rather than immediate. Historical research shows that both parties once contained substantial constituencies on both sides of the abortion issue. Catholic Democrats, moderate Republicans, conservative Protestants, feminists, religious liberals, and other groups did not initially fit neatly into the partisan configuration familiar today.
Abortion eventually became one of the clearest issues linking conservative Christian activism with Republican electoral politics.
Christian Nationalism and Abortion Attitudes
Recent social-scientific research has examined abortion specifically through the framework of Christian nationalism.
Studies generally find that people who score more highly on measures of Christian nationalism are more likely to oppose legal abortion. Researchers have also examined support for national abortion restrictions, criminal penalties, perceptions of the Supreme Court, and attitudes toward reproductive policy.
One study found an association between white Christian nationalism and support for arresting women who obtain abortions. Other research examines how Christian nationalism may mediate the relationship between religious conservatism, political conservatism, and opposition to abortion across different circumstances.
Researchers have also connected Christian nationalism with nationalist pronatalism—the belief that increasing birth rates is important to the strength, continuity, or demographic character of the nation. Related studies examine whether pronatalist attitudes are universal or are particularly concerned with encouraging reproduction among preferred religious, racial, cultural, or national groups.
The scholarship also links Christian nationalism to traditional gender ideology. Research on patriarchal family structures, heterosexual marriage, motherhood, masculinity, and social order provides a broader context for understanding why abortion can occupy an important position within Christian-nationalist politics.
Race, National Identity, and Demography
Some scholarship situates abortion within broader Christian-nationalist ideas about race and national identity.
Christian nationalism has been studied in connection with perceptions of ethnic, religious, and demographic threat. Scholars have examined whether fears of cultural displacement or declining demographic dominance contribute to pronatalist attitudes and other positions involving reproduction and family policy.
Research has also explored the relationship between Christian nationalism and white racial boundaries. More recent studies investigate whether the relationship between Christian nationalism and abortion politics operates differently among white and Black Americans.
These findings do not mean that every person who opposes abortion holds racial or nationalist motivations. The source material instead indicates that researchers studying Christian nationalism have identified abortion as one policy area within a larger constellation of attitudes involving national identity, demographic change, authority, gender, religion, and social boundaries.
Gender, Family, and Reproductive Politics
Abortion is also connected to Christian-nationalist debates concerning family structure and gender.
Scholarship examined in the source material associates Christian nationalism with support for more traditional divisions of gender roles and with beliefs that heterosexual marriage and conventional family structures contribute to social stability.
Research on embryo adoption, reproductive technology, motherhood, pronatalism, and conservative Christian activism demonstrates that abortion politics exist within a broader reproductive worldview. In this framework, disputes over abortion can overlap with arguments concerning contraception, fertility, family policy, sexuality, gender equality, and the definition of legitimate family life.
Some conservative Christians frame these questions primarily around the protection of fetal life and the moral responsibilities of families and communities. Critics of Christian nationalism instead argue that certain political efforts seek to place particular Christian understandings of gender, reproduction, and family into civil law.
Dobbs and the Overturning of Roe
The anti-abortion movement's long judicial campaign reached a major turning point with the Supreme Court's 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.
Dobbs overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, holding that the U.S. Constitution does not confer a right to abortion. Authority over abortion policy consequently shifted substantially toward state and federal legislative politics.
Many evangelical and Catholic anti-abortion organizations celebrated the decision after decades of political and legal activism. Religious organizations described the ruling as an important achievement while also arguing that their campaign should continue through legislation, pregnancy support programs, restrictions on medication abortion, and other policies.
The ruling did not end political conflict over abortion. Instead, it created new disputes over state bans, constitutional amendments, ballot initiatives, emergency medical treatment, medication abortion, interstate travel, federal authority, and the appropriate role of national government.
Post-Dobbs Political Strategy
The post-Dobbs period has exposed strategic disagreements within the conservative Christian and Republican coalitions.
Some anti-abortion organizations favor federal restrictions or national legislation. Others emphasize state-level policy. Republican politicians have also differed over whether abortion should remain primarily a state issue or whether federal action remains appropriate.
Religious conservative organizations continue to advocate policies concerning medication abortion, federal funding, conscience protections, pregnancy centers, and Planned Parenthood.
At the same time, electoral results and public opinion have created political pressures for candidates and parties seeking to determine how strongly to emphasize abortion restrictions.
State ballot initiatives have become especially important. After Dobbs, voters in numerous states considered constitutional amendments or initiatives involving abortion rights and restrictions. These campaigns demonstrate the increasing importance of direct democracy in determining abortion policy.
Medication Abortion and Federal Authority
Medication abortion has become another major post-Dobbs battleground.
Litigation involving mifepristone raised questions about federal regulatory authority, the Food and Drug Administration, standing to sue, and the ability of opponents of abortion to challenge national medication policy.
In FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, the Supreme Court ruled in 2024 that the plaintiffs lacked standing to challenge the FDA's regulation of mifepristone. The ruling preserved existing federal access at that stage of the litigation without resolving every underlying political or regulatory dispute concerning medication abortion.
Medication abortion remains significant because it can make abortion available across geographic boundaries, including through telehealth and mailed medication. Consequently, disputes increasingly involve conflicts among state abortion restrictions, federal regulation, medical practice, and laws intended to protect providers operating in states where abortion remains legal.
Emergency Medical Care and Abortion
Another major legal conflict concerns emergency abortion care.
The federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, commonly known as EMTALA, requires hospitals receiving Medicare funds to provide stabilizing emergency treatment. After Dobbs, disputes emerged over whether this requirement can obligate hospitals to provide abortions when necessary to stabilize a patient even when state law restricts abortion.
The Supreme Court considered this conflict in Moyle v. United States, involving Idaho's abortion law. In 2024, the Court dismissed the case without resolving the broader constitutional dispute, allowing emergency abortions required under federal law to proceed in Idaho while litigation continued.
The controversy illustrates a broader post-Dobbs problem: state abortion restrictions can intersect with federal health law, medical judgment, and religious or ethical objections in ways that were less prominent while Roe governed abortion policy nationally.
Public Opinion and Religious Differences
Public-opinion research demonstrates that neither Americans generally nor religious Americans hold a single position on abortion.
Pew Research Center and the Public Religion Research Institute document substantial differences among white evangelical Protestants, mainline Protestants, Black Protestants, Catholics, members of non-Christian faiths, and religiously unaffiliated Americans.
White evangelical Protestants are generally among the religious groups most supportive of abortion restrictions. Other Christian traditions show greater support for legal abortion, while religiously unaffiliated Americans tend to express particularly strong support for abortion legality.
Christian-nationalism measures reveal another important division. PRRI research finds significant differences between people categorized as Christian-nationalism adherents or sympathizers and those categorized as skeptics or rejecters.
At the same time, abortion attitudes often depend on circumstances. Polling indicates that many Americans distinguish among different stages of pregnancy and circumstances such as threats to maternal health, severe fetal abnormalities, rape, or incest. Public opinion therefore cannot always be described accurately through a simple division between complete legal prohibition and unrestricted legal access.
Religious Diversity and Abortion
The association between conservative Christianity and the anti-abortion movement can obscure the considerable diversity of religious teaching on abortion.
Catholic leadership has maintained strong institutional opposition to abortion. Many evangelical organizations also teach that abortion is morally wrong and should be legally restricted.
Other Christian groups, however, support legal abortion in at least some circumstances. Some clergy historically assisted women seeking abortions before Roe, and contemporary Christian supporters of abortion rights continue to justify their positions through theological and ethical arguments.
Jewish traditions can differ significantly from conservative Christian approaches to fetal personhood and the obligations of pregnant women. Jewish plaintiffs have therefore participated in religious-freedom challenges to state abortion bans.
Muslim perspectives also vary, with different legal and theological traditions addressing fetal development, maternal health, and permissible circumstances for abortion differently.
These differences complicate any assumption that abortion can be divided simply between religious opponents and secular supporters.
Religious Freedom Challenges to Abortion Bans
Following Dobbs, abortion restrictions have generated a new category of religious-freedom litigation.
Plaintiffs in states including Indiana and Missouri have argued that abortion bans can impose a particular theological understanding of conception, pregnancy, or fetal personhood on citizens whose religions hold different beliefs.
Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and other plaintiffs have participated in such challenges.
Supporters of these lawsuits argue that religious freedom protects not only conservative religious objections to government mandates but also individuals whose religious beliefs may permit or require abortion in circumstances prohibited by state law.
Defenders of abortion restrictions dispute the claim that such laws necessarily establish religious doctrine, arguing that legislatures may protect fetal life for secular as well as religious reasons.
The resulting cases place two long-running principles into potential tension: government protection of unborn life and government neutrality among competing religious beliefs.
Christian Opposition to Christian Nationalism
The material also demonstrates that conservative Christianity and Christian nationalism should not be treated as identical.
Some evangelical writers strongly oppose abortion while criticizing Christian nationalism. They argue that Christian moral convictions can legitimately influence political participation without requiring the United States to privilege Christianity as a national identity.
Other conservative Christian commentators warn that partisan loyalty can distort religious commitments, including anti-abortion advocacy.
These perspectives draw an important distinction between advocating laws based on sincerely held moral beliefs and defining American citizenship, political legitimacy, or national belonging through Christianity.
Consequently, abortion opposition by itself is not sufficient evidence that an individual or organization embraces Christian nationalism.
The Continuing Political Conflict
The end of Roe transformed rather than resolved American abortion politics.
For anti-abortion movements, Dobbs removed a major constitutional barrier but required activists to confront questions about state legislation, federal policy, public opinion, medication abortion, emergency care, and electoral strategy.
For abortion-rights organizations, the post-Dobbs environment shifted attention toward state constitutional protections, ballot initiatives, litigation, federal regulation, interstate access, and religious-freedom arguments.
Christian nationalism remains important to this debate because research finds a substantial association between Christian-nationalist attitudes and support for restrictive abortion policies. Yet the broader abortion conflict includes constituencies whose motivations cannot be reduced to Christian nationalism.
Catholic moral theology, evangelical biblical interpretation, secular ethical arguments, feminist movements, medical organizations, reproductive-rights advocacy, constitutional law, partisan competition, racial politics, and religious pluralism all contribute to the continuing conflict.
Conclusion
Abortion occupies a significant place in the history and contemporary politics of Christian nationalism, but the relationship developed through a long and complicated process.
American Christian views on abortion were historically diverse. Catholic anti-abortion activism preceded Roe, while Protestant positions included substantial disagreement. During the late twentieth century, abortion became increasingly central to conservative evangelical political organization and helped strengthen the coalition between the Religious Right and the Republican Party.
Over several decades, anti-abortion activists invested heavily in electoral politics, legislation, legal organizations, and judicial appointments. The Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization represented the culmination of an important portion of that strategy but opened a new era of conflict rather than ending the debate.
Contemporary research indicates that Christian nationalism is associated with stronger opposition to abortion, support for some restrictive abortion policies, traditional gender attitudes, and certain forms of pronatalism. Some scholarship also examines connections with race, demographic anxiety, national identity, hierarchy, and social order.
However, opposition to abortion and Christian nationalism remain analytically distinct. Many Christians oppose abortion while rejecting Christian nationalism, and many religious Americans—including Christians, Jews, Muslims, and members of other traditions—support legal abortion in at least some circumstances.
The post-Dobbs era has therefore made the relationship among abortion, religion, nationalism, and religious liberty more complicated rather than less. The conflict now involves state legislation, ballot initiatives, medication abortion, emergency medical care, constitutional law, religious-freedom litigation, and continuing disagreement over the proper role of religion in American public life.
Christian Nationalism and Abortion — Direct Research
| Jesse Smith | Religious Studies Review | September 2026
"On Christian Nationalism." Reviews and critiques the expanding scholarly concept of Christian nationalism, including scholarship connecting it with abortion opposition.
| Samuel L. Perry | Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion | March 14, 2026
"The Right Kind of Children: Christian Nationalism, Religiosity, and Support for Selective Versus General Pronatalism." Distinguishes broad support for higher birth rates from forms of pronatalism associated with maintaining particular demographic groups.
| Cristina Melissa Pimenta | Florida Atlantic University | 2026
"The Intersection of Religion & Politics in the United States." Dissertation examining Christian nationalism, reproductive rights, gender equality, and abortion policy at federal and state levels.
"Deciding for Her: Religio-Political Conservatism, Christian Nationalism, and Public Opposition to Legal Abortion Across Circumstances." Examines whether Christian nationalism mediates relationships between religious and political conservatism and opposition to abortion under different circumstances.
| Darci K. Schmidgall, Samuel L. Perry & Joshua B. Grubbs | Social Problems | June 28, 2025
"Anti-Abortion and Pro-Coercion: White Christian Nationalism and Support for Arresting Women Who Have Abortions." Uses national survey data to examine associations among Christian nationalism, anti-abortion attitudes, White nationalism, and support for criminal penalties against women who obtain abortions.
| Brooklyn Walker & Paul A. Djupe | Religion in Public | April 22, 2025
"The Moderate Abortion Politics of Christian Nationalism?" Examines survey evidence and nuances in the relationship between Christian-nationalist attitudes and specific abortion policies.
| Samuel L. Perry & Darci K. Schmidgall | Ethnic and Racial Studies | April 3, 2025
"How Christian Nationalism Co-opts Black Americans for Republicans: The Case of Abortion in the 2024 Presidential Election." Studies how Christian nationalism and abortion priorities intersect with race and partisan politics.
| Scholars in Perspectives on Politics | Cambridge University Press | 2025
"Religion Is Sometimes Raced: Christian Nationalism as In-Group Protection." Finds Christian nationalism strongly associated with support for a national abortion ban while examining whether racial identity modifies its political effects.
| Miles Armaly and colleagues | American Journal of Political Science | 2025
"An Ecclesiastical Court: Christian Nationalism and Perceptions of the U.S. Supreme Court." Examines Christian nationalism and attitudes toward the Supreme Court, including support for the Court overturning Roe v. Wade.
| Christianity Today | Christianity Today | 2025
"'Roe v. Wade' Eroded the Church's Historic Pro-Life Consensus." Reviews Daniel K. Williams's history of shifting abortion views within American churches.
"Embodied Political Influencers: How U.S. Anti-Abortion Actors Co-Opt Narratives of Marginalization." Studies online anti-abortion influencers, including instances in which activists embrace, justify, or normalize Christian-nationalist ideas.
| ProPublica staff | ProPublica | 2024
"Behind Christian Nationalism's Influence on the 2024 Election." Interactive history tracing Christian Reconstructionism, the Religious Right, abortion activism, dominionism, and contemporary Christian nationalism.
| Scholars | International Journal of Anthropology and Ethnology | 2023
"American Evangelical Nationalism: History, Status Quo, and Outlook." Reviews evangelical nationalism and identifies abortion as an important catalyst in conservative Christian political mobilization.
| Andrew Whitehead & Samuel L. Perry | Religion News Service | January 19, 2023
"White Christian Nationalism Isn't Pro-Life. It's Pro-Order." Argues that abortion opposition within Christian nationalism is connected to beliefs about hierarchy, gender, authority, and social order.
| Samuel L. Perry | Sociological Forum | September 7, 2022
"Fill the Earth and Subdue It: Christian Nationalism, Ethno-Religious Threat, and Nationalist Pronatalism." Connects Christian nationalism with pronatalist attitudes and concerns about demographic and cultural change.
| Scholars | Georgetown University Berkley Center | 2021
"The Reactionary Entrepreneurship of White Evangelicalism." Discusses efforts by conservative Christian political networks to shape abortion, sexuality, immigration, and religious-freedom policy.
| Andrew L. Whitehead & Samuel L. Perry | Oxford University Press | March 19, 2020
"Order," from Taking America Back for God. Examines Christian nationalism's relationship with patriarchy, heterosexual family structure, gender roles, and perceived social disorder.
| Andrew L. Whitehead & Samuel L. Perry | Canadian Review of Sociology | April 30, 2019
"Is a 'Christian America' a More Patriarchal America?" Finds Christian nationalism strongly related to traditionalist gender ideology, providing background for understanding reproductive-policy attitudes.
| Sarah Franklin & Faye Ginsburg | Cultural Anthropology | March 14, 2019
"Reproductive Politics in the Age of Trump and Brexit." Places abortion and reproductive politics within a broader discussion of nationalism, race, religion, and conservative politics.
| Samuel L. Perry & Andrew L. Whitehead | Ethnic and Racial Studies | March 6, 2015
"Christian Nationalism and White Racial Boundaries." Important background research on how fused Christian and national identities can reinforce social boundaries.
| Andrew L. Whitehead & Samuel L. Perry | Sociological Perspectives | 2015
"A More Perfect Union? Christian Nationalism and Support for Same-Sex Unions." Useful comparative research showing how Christian nationalism relates to other family- and sexuality-related culture-war issues.
Abortion and the Rise of the Religious Right
| Daniel K. Williams | Oxford University Press | June 16, 2026
"Culture Wars in the Carter Years." Describes evangelical political mobilization around abortion, the ERA, gay rights, Christian schools, and secular humanism during the late 1970s.
| Alex Ward | The Gospel Coalition | January 15, 2026
"How Law and Culture Shape America's Abortion Conscience." Review of Daniel K. Williams's Abortion and America's Churches and the changing religious history of abortion.
| Daniel K. Williams | Oxford Handbook of Christian Fundamentalism | November 20, 2023
"Abortion." Reviews fundamentalist Christian approaches to abortion before and after Roe and their influence on the New Christian Right.
| Daniel K. Williams | Oxford Handbook of Christian Fundamentalism | November 20, 2023
"The Christian Right." Surveys the development of the Religious Right and the increasing centrality of abortion, same-sex marriage, and religious liberty.
| The Gospel Coalition | The Gospel Coalition | 2023
"Review: The Story of Abortion in America." Presents a conservative Christian interpretation of abortion's religious, political, and legal history.
| Daniel Silliman | Christianity Today | June 24, 2022
"Goodbye Roe v. Wade: Pro-Life Evangelicals Celebrate the Ruling They've Waited For." Documents the evangelical response to Dobbs after decades of anti-abortion political activism.
| David Smith and contributors | The Guardian | June 24, 2022
"How Americans Lost Their Right to Abortions: A Victory for Conservatives, 50 Years in the Making." Reconstructs the political, judicial, and religious movement that culminated in Dobbs.
| Neil O'Brian | The Washington Post | May 18, 2022
"Evangelicals Opposed Abortion Long Before Their Leaders Caught Up." Uses historical polling to argue that rank-and-file evangelicals often held more restrictive abortion views before prominent leaders fully mobilized around the issue.
| Gillian Frank | The Washington Post | May 16, 2022
"What Everyone Gets Wrong About Evangelicals and Abortion." Challenges an overly simple account in which evangelical interest in abortion suddenly appeared only as a political substitute for segregation.
| Michel Martin & Kristin Kobes Du Mez | PBS / Amanpour & Company | May 5, 2022
"Kristin Du Mez: How Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith." Discusses the changing evangelical approach to abortion and the politicization of the issue in the late twentieth century.
| Jessica Glenza | The Guardian | December 5, 2021
"'Historical Accident': How Abortion Came to Focus White, Evangelical Anger." Reviews the emergence of abortion as a powerful organizing issue for conservative evangelicals.
| Randall Balmer | The Guardian | September 8, 2021
"There's a Straight Line from U.S. Racial Segregation to the Anti-Abortion Movement." Presents Balmer's argument that disputes over segregated Christian schools preceded abortion as a major mobilizing issue for Religious Right leaders.
| Chris McGreal | The Guardian | March 4, 2020
"The 50-Year Fight by Radical Evangelicals That Could End U.S. Abortion Rights." Traces the long campaign linking evangelical politics, Republican organizing, courts, and abortion restrictions.
| Justin Taylor | The Gospel Coalition | May 9, 2018
"How the Christian Right Became Prolife on Abortion and Transformed the Culture Wars." Discusses Andrew Lewis's research on how abortion activism contributed to conservative Christian rights-based political language.
| Cynthia Greenlee | TIME | May 2017
"The Surprising Role of Clergy in the Abortion Fight Before Roe v. Wade." Documents Protestant and Jewish clergy who helped women obtain abortions before Roe, showing that religious opinion was historically diverse.
| Daniel K. Williams | Religions | April 16, 2015
"The Partisan Trajectory of the American Pro-Life Movement." Explains how a movement initially led largely by Catholics, including many Democrats, became increasingly identified with conservative evangelicals and the Republican Party.
| Daniel Schultz | The Guardian | August 17, 2010
"The True Story of the Religious Right." Discusses competing interpretations of abortion's role in the origins of modern conservative evangelical politics.
| TIME staff | TIME | July 4, 1988
"Religion: Second Thoughts About Abortion." Historical reporting on changing Protestant and Christian positions toward abortion.
| Joshua C. Wilson / historical analysis | TIME | 2024
"How Abortion Took Over the Republican Party." Reviews the transformation of abortion from an issue dividing both parties to a defining feature of Republican coalition politics.
| Historical analysis | TIME | 2024
"The Woman Who Helped Build the Christian Right." Profiles Beverly LaHaye and Concerned Women for America's activism on abortion, gender, family policy, and conservative Christian politics.
"Evangelicals in Power." Documentary material examining Francis Schaeffer, anti-abortion films, evangelical political mobilization, and the growth of the Christian Right.
Roe, Dobbs, Courts, and Political Strategy
| Daniel K. Williams | Christianity Today | 2026
"The New Party Politics of Abortion." Examines tensions between traditional anti-abortion activists and a Republican coalition increasingly willing to leave abortion policy to individual states.
| Jack Jenkins | Religion News Service | October 17, 2024
"At Pray Vote Stand Summit, Religious Right Leaders Reckon with GOP Pivot on Abortion." Reports Religious Right reactions to changing Republican abortion strategy.
| Gram Slattery and colleagues | Reuters | July 2, 2024
"Social Conservatives Push Trump to Back Federal Role on Abortion." Reports disagreement between anti-abortion religious conservatives and Republican strategists over federal abortion policy.
| Karen Swallow Prior | Christianity Today | January 25, 2024
"Pro-Life Policy in a Post-Roe World." Reflects on policy choices facing abortion opponents after the elimination of Roe's federal constitutional rule.
| Christianity Today | Christianity Today | 2024
"Our Perennial Political Temptation." Reflects on the alliance between evangelical political activism, Republican politicians, abortion, and other social issues.
| Historical analysis | The Washington Post | May 19, 2023
"Post-Dobbs Climate Has Exposed Longstanding GOP Divisions on Abortion." Places current Republican disagreements in a longer history of intra-party conflict over abortion.
| Daniel Silliman | Christianity Today | September 16, 2022
"Strategy Questions Divide Pro-Life Politics After Dobbs." Examines disagreements over national versus state bans and other post-Roe strategies.
| Daniel K. Williams | Christianity Today | September 8, 2022
"5 Reasons for Progressive Christians to Join the Pro-Life Cause." Attempts to separate Christian opposition to abortion from nationalism and partisan Republican politics.
| Christianity Today / National Association of Evangelicals | Christianity Today | September 1, 2022
"Pro-Life Ministry in Post-Roe America." Discusses ethical, pastoral, legal, and social questions facing evangelical anti-abortion organizations after Dobbs.
| Lauren R. Kerby | The Washington Post | July 18, 2022
"The Christian Right's Version of History Paid Off on Abortion and Guns." Examines how Christian-right narratives about America's past intersected with legal conservatism and Supreme Court doctrine.
| Katherine Stewart | The Guardian | June 25, 2022
"How the Christian Right Took Over the Judiciary and Changed America." Argues that conservative Christian organizations built a long-term legal and political infrastructure culminating in Dobbs.
| Russell Moore | Christianity Today | May 5, 2022
"Our Pro-Life Advocacy Shouldn't Be Limited by Tribal Loyalty." Defends opposition to abortion while criticizing Christian nationalism and partisan inconsistency.
| National Constitution Center | National Constitution Center | 2022
"Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization." Provides legal background, majority reasoning, concurrences, and dissent concerning the decision overturning Roe.
| National Constitution Center | National Constitution Center | 2022
"Primary Source: Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization." Educational treatment of the constitutional arguments surrounding Dobbs.
| Jessica Glenza | The Guardian | November 30, 2021
"A 'Fundamental' Right: A Timeline of U.S. Abortion Rights Since Roe v. Wade." Chronology of abortion law and the political movement to restrict or protect it.
| Political analysis | The Washington Post | September 20, 2021
"A Win in the Courts Could Backfire on the Antiabortion Movement." Examines how overturning Roe could move political conflict away from courts and back into state electoral politics.
| Jeffrey Rosen, Mary Ziegler and guests | National Constitution Center | 2021
"The Dobbs v. Jackson Case – Part 2." Discusses historical, originalist, substantive-due-process, and precedent arguments surrounding abortion law.
| Kate Shellnutt | Christianity Today | December 1, 2021
"Supreme Court Abortion Case Holds Signs of Hope for Pro-Life Evangelicals." Reports evangelical reactions to the Supreme Court arguments in Dobbs.
| Mary Ziegler | The Washington Post | October 22, 2020
"Abortion Politics Polarized Before Roe. When It's Gone, the Fighting Won't Stop." Reviews political realignment and the development of abortion as a partisan issue.
Public Opinion, Religion, and Christian Nationalism
| Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | 2026
"Public Opinion on Abortion." Current overview of abortion attitudes by religious affiliation, party, gender, race, and other demographic categories.
| PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | 2026
"Mapping Abortion Views Across the 50 States." Updates state and religious-group data and examines Christian-nationalism categories among supporters and opponents of abortion legality.
| PRRI | Public Religion Research Institute | April 23, 2026
"6 in 10 Americans, Including Most Religious Americans, Independents, Support Abortion Legality." Reports 2025 American Values Atlas data and Christian-nationalism differences.
| Gregory A. Smith et al. | Pew Research Center | February 26, 2025
"Religion and Views on LGBTQ Issues and Abortion." Religious Landscape Study findings showing substantial differences among evangelical, mainline Protestant, Catholic, Black Protestant, LDS, non-Christian, and unaffiliated Americans.
| PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | 2025
"Abortion Views Across All 50 States." Finds a strong state-level and individual relationship between attitudes toward Christian nationalism and attitudes toward abortion legality.
| PRRI | Public Religion Research Institute | 2025
"Religious Affiliation and Christian Nationalism." Detailed survey report comparing abortion-pill and abortion-legality attitudes by religion and Christian-nationalism category.
| Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | May 13, 2024
"Broad Public Support for Legal Abortion Persists Two Years After Dobbs." Includes substantial religious differences, with white evangelicals notably more opposed to legal abortion.
| PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | May 2, 2024
"New National Data Show Support for Abortion Legality Remains Strong Across Religious and Political Divides." Includes analysis connecting Christian-nationalist orientation and abortion attitudes.
| Chip Rotolo, Gregory A. Smith & Jonathan Evans | Pew Research Center | March 15, 2024
"Christianity's Place in Politics, and Christian Nationalism." Provides broader public-opinion context on Christian moral values, biblical influence on law, and church-state relations.
| Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | October 27, 2022
"Views of the U.S. as a Christian Nation and Opinions About Christian Nationalism." Documents how Americans define a Christian nation and how issues including abortion enter those definitions.
| Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | July 15, 2022
"Key Facts About the Abortion Debate in America." Useful statistical summary of abortion attitudes, including major differences between white evangelicals and other religious groups.
| Bob Smietana | Religion News Service | July 11, 2022
"Survey: Post-Roe, White Evangelicals Remain Outliers on Abortion Laws." Reports post-Dobbs religious differences in support for abortion restrictions.
| Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | July 6, 2022
"Majority of Public Disapproves of Supreme Court's Decision to Overturn Roe v. Wade." Shows major religious differences in reactions to Dobbs.
| Michael Lipka | Pew Research Center | June 17, 2022
"A Closer Look at Republicans Who Favor Legal Abortion and Democrats Who Oppose It." Shows how religiosity intersects with partisan exceptions to prevailing abortion positions.
| Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | May 6, 2022
"On Abortion, Few Americans Take an Absolutist View." Detailed study of exceptions, gestational stages, morality, fetal personhood, and religious differences.
| Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | May 6, 2022
"Americans' Views on Whether and in What Circumstances Abortion Should Be Legal." Breaks abortion opinion down by religious and political group and by specific circumstances.
| Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | May 6, 2022
"Social and Moral Considerations in Americans' Views of Abortion." Examines moral reasoning and contrasts white evangelical, Catholic, mainline, Black Protestant, and unaffiliated views.
| Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | May 6, 2022
"How the Issue of Abortion Touches Americans Personally." Examines personal experience and the importance of religious teaching in shaping abortion opinions.
| Frank Newport & Lydia Saad | Gallup | April 3, 2006
"Religion, Politics Inform Americans' Views on Abortion." Finds religious commitment and church attendance strongly related to abortion attitudes even within political parties.
"Public Opinion About Abortion — An In-Depth Review." Historical overview of abortion polling with attention to religion and religiosity.
Religious Diversity and Challenges to Christian-Nationalist Framing
| Americans United for Separation of Church and State | AU | current
"Abortion Access: Religious Freedom Demands Reproductive Freedom." Argues that abortion bans can impose a particular religious understanding of conception and pregnancy on people holding other beliefs.
| Danya Ruttenberg & Kellie Turtle | Cambridge University Press | December 18, 2024
"Reflections on Faith-Based Abortion Advocacy." Discusses Jewish teaching on abortion and arguments that restrictive abortion laws can burden religious freedom.
| David Crary / Associated Press | PBS NewsHour | June 2023
"America's Religious Leaders Sharply Divided over Abortion, a Year After Roe's Reversal." Shows that Christian and non-Christian religious traditions remain sharply divided over abortion.
"Faith and Abortion." Examines different religious teachings on abortion and First Amendment arguments concerning abortion restrictions.
| Historical analysis | The Washington Post | August 3, 2022
"For Some Clergy in the Past, Facilitating Abortions Was Faith in Action." Recounts the Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion and the long history of religious support for abortion access.
| Madeleine Carlisle | TIME | July 2022
"Does Religious Freedom Protect a Right to an Abortion?" Examines Jewish religious-liberty challenges to abortion bans.
| Associated Press | PBS NewsHour | 2022
"'I Trust in God': Religious Backers of Abortion Rights Reconcile Their Work with Their Faith." Profiles religious believers whose theology supports abortion rights.
| Guttmacher Institute | Guttmacher Institute | July 2021
"The Weldon Amendment: Interfering with Abortion Coverage and Care." Reproductive-rights analysis of federal conscience protections affecting abortion.
| Rachel K. Jones | Guttmacher Institute | October 19, 2020
"People of All Religions Use Birth Control and Have Abortions." Provides data on the religious affiliations of abortion patients and contraceptive users.
| Lee A. Hasselbacher et al. | Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health | June 29, 2020
"'My Hands Are Tied': Abortion Restrictions and Providers' Experiences in Religious and Nonreligious Health Care Systems." Studies abortion restrictions inside Catholic, Protestant-affiliated, and secular hospitals.
| Lori Frohwirth, Michele Coleman & Ann M. Moore | Guttmacher Institute | November 21, 2018
"Managing Religion and Morality Within the Abortion Experience." Qualitative research on religion, morality, stigma, and the experiences of women obtaining abortions.
| Adam Sonfield | Guttmacher Institute | 2016
"Learning from Experience: Where Religious Liberty Meets Reproductive Rights." Examines conflicts between religious exemptions, reproductive health, abortion, and individual rights.
| Guttmacher Institute | Guttmacher Institute | January 6, 2016
"As Religious Liberty Laws Are Used to Undermine Other Rights, Safeguards Needed for Reproductive Health Access." Presents a reproductive-rights critique of expansive conscience protections.
| Rachel K. Jones and colleagues | Guttmacher Institute | 2016
"Characteristics of U.S. Abortion Patients in 2014." Includes detailed data on the religious identification of abortion patients.
| Allison K. Lange / historical analysis | Smithsonian Magazine | 2022
"What Did the Suffragists Really Think About Abortion?" Explores nineteenth-century abortion, women's rights, race, reproductive control, and disputed historical claims.
Conservative Christian and Anti-Abortion Perspectives
| Family Research Council | Family Research Council | current
"Biblical Worldview Series." Includes conservative Christian theological material explaining FRC's opposition to abortion and its broader approach to public policy.
| Ryan Foley | The Christian Post | April 24, 2026
"Most Mainline Protestants, Catholics Support Legal Abortion: Poll." Conservative Christian news coverage of PRRI data illustrating religious divisions over abortion.
| Randall K. O'Bannon | National Right to Life | February 12, 2025
"New Fact Sheets Show Roe, Dobbs Impact on the Number of Abortions in the U.S." Anti-abortion organization's interpretation of national abortion statistics before and after Dobbs.
| Joe Carter | The Gospel Coalition | 2024
"How the GOP Became Pro-Choice." Critiques post-Dobbs Republican movement away from stronger national abortion restrictions.
| National Right to Life | National Right to Life | 2024
"The State of Abortion in the United States." Provides the perspective of one of the country's longest-running anti-abortion organizations.
| Institute for Faith & Family / legal advocates | U.S. Court of Appeals filing | April 11, 2024
Amicus brief addressing abortion, conscience protections, and religious liberty from a conservative religious perspective.
| Patrick Schreiner | The Gospel Coalition | 2023
"The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Christian Nationalism." Presents a conservative Christian critique of coercive Christian nationalism while affirming Christian political activism against abortion.
| Thomas S. Kidd | The Gospel Coalition | 2020
"Christian Nationalism vs. Christian Patriotism." Distinguishes Christian civic engagement from Christian nationalism while discussing the Republican Party's post-Roe anti-abortion identity.
| Andy Naselli & J.D. Crowley | Themelios / The Gospel Coalition | 2020
"Politics, Conscience, and the Church." Offers a conservative evangelical framework distinguishing moral principles regarding abortion from disagreements over political tactics.
| Evangelical theology scholars | Oxford Handbook of Evangelical Theology | January 2, 2011
"The Vulnerable—Abortion and Disability." Presents evangelical theological arguments concerning fetal life, vulnerability, disability, and abortion.
Broader Political and Cultural Context
| Christianity Today editors | Christianity Today | current
"Abortion." Christianity Today's continuing archive provides evangelical arguments, reporting, historical discussions, and post-Dobbs debates useful for tracing changes within conservative Christianity.
| Hanne Amanda Trangerud | Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses | 2026
"Our Man at the Top: How the Seven Mountains Mandate and Paul Weyrich's Last Testament Have Shaped the Presidency of Donald Trump." Connects contemporary dominion-oriented politics with earlier Religious Right organization, including abortion mobilization.
| Historian | Church History | 2025
"'Is Humanism Molesting Your Child?' Lottie Beth Hobbs, the Death of the ERA, and the Birth of the Religious Right." Shows how abortion interacted with feminism, the ERA, education, sexuality, and biblical family ideology in building the Religious Right.
| Religion News Service | Religion News Service | January 16, 2025
"How Dangerous Is Christian Nationalism?" Presents Jewish organizational concerns about abortion restrictions, church-state separation, and Christian-nationalist political influence.
| Neha Wadekar | PBS NewsHour | October 31, 2024
"Why the American Abortion Debate Is Affecting Access in Kenya." Examines international effects of American evangelical anti-abortion organizations, U.S. foreign-aid policy, and reproductive-health politics.
| Religion News Service | Religion News Service | August 19, 2024
"Six Young Evangelicals on the 2024 Election." Shows the diversity of younger evangelical political priorities, including voters who continue to treat abortion as decisive.
| Janell Fetterolf & Laura Clancy | Pew Research Center | May 15, 2024
"Support for Legal Abortion Is Widespread in Many Places, Especially in Europe." Provides international context demonstrating how religiosity and abortion attitudes vary across countries.
| Political analysis | TIME | 2024
"Trump's Christian Nationalist Vision for America." Discusses abortion alongside a broader Christian-nationalist political agenda and Trump's relationship with evangelical leaders.
| Associated Press / AP-NORC | Associated Press | 2024
"Most Hispanic Americans Support Abortion Access." Survey reporting complicates assumptions that religious or culturally conservative Hispanic populations hold uniform abortion views.
| Katherine Woodard | Georgetown Berkley Center | April 28, 2022
"A City Upon a Hill." Tracks conservative evangelical political involvement from separatist fundamentalism through Moral Majority activism and international family-policy campaigns.
| Georgetown Berkley Center | Georgetown University | 2021
"When It Comes to Religion and Politics, Race Trumps." Discusses white evangelical political identity, abortion, sexuality, racial politics, and the Religious Right.
"After Alabama, Abortion May Not Be Defining Issue in 2018 Races." Examines how white evangelical population share, party identification, and state political culture affect abortion politics.
| PBS Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly | PBS | February 22, 2013
"Colorado Springs Evangelicals." Examines Focus on the Family, abortion, same-sex marriage, and debates over evangelical political strategy.
| PBS Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly | PBS | April 22, 2004
"Evangelicals and Politics." Historical reporting identifying abortion as a major political concern among white evangelical voters while noting internal diversity.
| Scholars | Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health | January 2004
"Abortion: Teaching Why as Well as How." Reviews competing religious positions on abortion and the involvement of church organizations in abortion policy.
| Researchers | Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health | September 2002
"Patterns in the Socioeconomic Characteristics of Women Obtaining Abortions." Includes data on Protestant, Catholic, evangelical, other-religion, and religiously unaffiliated abortion patients.
| Researchers | Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health | May 2000
"Trends in Adolescent Males' Abortion Attitudes, 1988–1995." Includes analysis of evangelical identity, religiosity, race, and abortion attitudes.
| The Washington Post | The Washington Post | March 8, 1988
"Evangelicals: A Force Divided." Contemporary reporting on the Religious Right, abortion, school prayer, family values, and disagreements among evangelicals.
Historical Development of the Christian Right and Anti-Abortion Movement
| Daniel K. Williams | University of Notre Dame Press | 2025
"Abortion and America's Churches: A Religious History of Roe v. Wade." Comprehensive history demonstrating that American Christian traditions have changed their abortion positions considerably over time.
| Daniel K. Williams | University of Notre Dame Press | 2025
"Liberal Protestants before Roe: Abortion as a Personal Moral Decision." Examines Protestant clergy and denominations that supported liberalization of abortion laws before Roe.
| Daniel K. Williams | University of Notre Dame Press | 2025
"Catholics before Roe: A Theology of Unborn Life." Traces Catholic theological arguments and institutional organization against abortion before 1973.
| Daniel K. Williams | University of Notre Dame Press | 2025
"Evangelicals before Roe: A Moderate Conservatism on Abortion." Shows that evangelical thinking about abortion before Roe contained substantial disagreement and permitted exceptions that later became less common.
| Daniel K. Williams | University of Notre Dame Press | 2025
"Catholics and Evangelicals after Roe: The Making of a Pro-Life Alliance." Documents the development of the Catholic-evangelical political coalition that became central to the modern anti-abortion movement.
| Daniel K. Williams | University of Notre Dame Press | 2025
"The Conservative Christian Coalition That Overturned Roe." Traces the institutional alliance that linked abortion activism, conservative Christianity, Republican politics and judicial nominations.
| Iga Kozlowska, Daniel Béland and André Lecours | Nations and Nationalism | February 18, 2016
"Nationalism, Religion, and Abortion Policy in Four Catholic Societies." Compares Ireland, Poland, Spain and Quebec to examine how religious national identity can shape abortion policy.
| Mary Ziegler | Harvard University Press | 2015
"After Roe: The Lost History of the Abortion Debate." Demonstrates that abortion politics after Roe initially contained considerably more ideological, partisan and racial complexity than today's alignment suggests.
| Andrew R. Flint and Joy Porter | Presidential Studies Quarterly | February 8, 2005
"Jimmy Carter: The Re-emergence of Faith-Based Politics and the Abortion Rights Issue." Examines Carter's evangelical identity and how abortion contributed to the political mobilization of religious conservatives against his administration.
| Clyde Wilcox and Leopoldo Gomez | Review of Religious Research | June 1990
"The Christian Right and the Pro-Life Movement: An Analysis of the Sources of Political Support." An early empirical study showing that the Christian Right and organized anti-abortion movement initially had overlapping but distinct constituencies, particularly evangelical Protestants and Catholics.
Competing Histories of Evangelical Mobilization
| Yonat Shimron | Religion News Service | May 30, 2024
"'Bad Faith' Sounds the Alarm on the Past and Future of Christian Nationalism." Interview about a documentary presenting abortion as an important mobilizing tool in the growth of the Religious Right.
| Michael Scherer | The Washington Post | May 7, 2022
"Inside the Movement to Overturn Roe v. Wade and Ban Abortions." Reconstructs the organizations, political alliances, legal strategy and judicial nominations involved in the campaign against Roe.
| Kristin Kobes Du Mez | History News Network / NPR | May 8, 2022
"How the Evangelical Movement Embraced the Abortion Issue." Discusses the movement from diverse evangelical abortion views toward a more unified conservative position during the 1970s.
| Amna Nawaz and Ian Couzens | PBS NewsHour | August 11, 2022
"Faith Leaders Discuss How Their Religions Approach the Divisive Issue of Abortion." Jewish, Muslim and Southern Baptist representatives compare religious teachings about abortion and the role of government.
| Donne Levy | History News Network | October 24, 2021
"How the Republicans Became the Anti-Abortion Party." Reviews the political realignment that increasingly linked anti-abortion religious conservatives with the Republican Party.
| Randall Balmer | History News Network / Boston Globe | February 5, 2018
"Race, Not Abortion, Was the Founding Issue of the Religious Right." Presents Balmer's influential argument that disputes over federal action against racially discriminatory Christian schools helped catalyze Religious Right organization.
Post-Dobbs Christian Anti-Abortion Strategy
| Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission | Southern Baptist Convention | 2026
"ERLC Issues 2026 Public Policy Agenda." Identifies abortion restrictions, medication abortion, Planned Parenthood funding and conscience protections among Southern Baptist federal policy priorities.
| Daniel E. Thomas | U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops | June 22, 2026
"Bishop Thomas' Statement on the Anniversary of the Dobbs Decision." Focuses on medication abortion and continued Catholic anti-abortion activism several years after Dobbs.
| Aaron Earls / Lifeway Research | Christianity Today | June 24, 2024
"After Roe's Reversal, Most Churches Still Aren't Involved with a Local Pregnancy Center." Reports survey data on Protestant congregational participation in pregnancy-resource-center ministries.
| Maria Baer | Christianity Today | January 30, 2024
"Are Pro-Life Laws Working?" Discusses abortion statistics after Dobbs from a conservative Christian perspective and distinguishes state-level declines from national trends.
| Harvest Prude | Christianity Today | January 18, 2024
"Why 100,000 Pro-Lifers Still March in DC." Examines how anti-abortion activism changed after Roe was overturned and why activists continue seeking broader legal and cultural change.
| U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops | USCCB | June 28, 2023
"U.S. Bishops' President and Chairmen Rebuke Distortion of Church Teaching in Abortion Statement." Illustrates disagreement between Catholic political figures and the Catholic hierarchy over abortion.
| Michael F. Burbidge | U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops | June 6, 2023
"U.S. Bishops' Pro-Life Chairman on the Anniversary of Dobbs." Describes Dobbs as only an initial stage in a broader anti-abortion campaign.
| Adam MacInnis | Christianity Today | February 2023
"Mississippi Evangelicals Prepare to Welcome Dobbs Babies." Examines evangelical pregnancy assistance and social-support efforts after Mississippi restricted abortion.
| José H. Gomez and William E. Lori | U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops | June 24, 2022
"USCCB Statement on U.S. Supreme Court Ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson." Official Catholic bishops' response celebrating the reversal of Roe while calling for increased support for mothers and families.
| U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops | USCCB | May 2022
"Statement in Advance of the Supreme Court's Ruling in Dobbs." Explains the bishops' theological and social-policy approach immediately before the decision.
Religious Freedom Challenges to Abortion Bans
| American Civil Liberties Union | ACLU | current
"ACLU Defense of Religious Practice and Expression." Includes the Indiana litigation brought by Jewish, Muslim and other plaintiffs who argue that abortion restrictions burden their religious exercise.
| Americans United | Americans United | December 10, 2024
"Individual Members of the Medical Licensing Board of Indiana v. Anonymous Plaintiff 1." Discusses Jewish, Muslim and other plaintiffs who challenged Indiana's abortion ban under religious-freedom protections.
| Americans United and allied organizations | Indiana Supreme Court Amicus Brief | June 10, 2024
Amicus brief arguing that Indiana's abortion restrictions implicate religious conscience because faith traditions differ regarding pregnancy and fetal personhood.
| Americans United | Americans United | 2024
"Rev. Blackmon v. Missouri." Case materials concerning the argument that Missouri abortion laws embodied particular theological assumptions and violated state church-state protections.
| American Civil Liberties Union | ACLU | 2024–2025
"Mary Poe v. Russell Coleman et al." Later Kentucky constitutional challenge describing the consequences of the state's post-Dobbs abortion bans.
| American Civil Liberties Union | ACLU | December 8, 2023
"Jane Doe et al. v. Daniel Cameron et al." Kentucky litigation challenging abortion prohibitions under state constitutional privacy and self-determination protections.
| Americans United for Separation of Church and State | Americans United | 2023
"Missouri Abortion Bans Lawsuit." Explains a church-state challenge brought by clergy from several religious traditions against Missouri abortion restrictions.
| Americans United | Americans United | March 1, 2023
"Religious & Civil Rights Groups Urge Indiana Appeals Court to Protect Religious Freedom by Blocking Abortion Ban." Presents the religious-pluralism argument against imposing one theological view of fetal personhood.
Public Opinion: Religion, Christian Nationalism, and Abortion
| Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | March 19, 2026
"What Do Americans Consider Immoral? — Detailed Tables." Includes abortion morality measures broken down by detailed religious affiliation and party identification.
| Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | February 17, 2026
"Views on Abortion by Religious Identification, 2026." Compares white evangelical Protestants, nonevangelical Protestants, Black Protestants, Catholics and religiously unaffiliated Americans.
| Jeff Diamant and Becka A. Alper | Pew Research Center | June 12, 2025
"Americans' Views on Abortion Differ by State." Uses the Religious Landscape Study to compare abortion opinion across all 50 states and Washington, D.C.
| Pew Research Center | 2023–24 Religious Landscape Study | February 26, 2025
"Religious Landscape Study." Extensive national data on religious affiliation, political attitudes and abortion legality.
| Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | September 9, 2024
"White Protestants, Catholics Prefer Trump; Harris Backed by Voters in Other Religious Groups." Includes data on how important abortion was to voters belonging to different religious groups.
| PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | 2024
"Challenges to Democracy: The 2024 Election in Focus." Includes attitudes toward abortion pills and comparisons among Christian-nationalism categories.
Abortion Ballot Measures and Popular Votes
| Nicole Fisher | Ballotpedia | December 19, 2024
"Campaigns for Abortion Rights Measures Raised Eight Times More than Opposing Campaigns in 2024." Reviews campaign finances and election results after the November vote.
| Mabel Felix, Laurie Sobel and Alina Salganicoff | KFF | December 18, 2024
"What's Next for State Abortion Ballot Initiatives?" Reviews outcomes in ten states and discusses the continuing importance of state constitutional politics after Dobbs.
| Ballotpedia Staff | Ballotpedia | October 2, 2024
"A Deep Dive into Spending on Abortion-Related Ballot Measures in 2024." Compares fundraising and spending by abortion-rights and anti-abortion campaigns.
| Nicole Fisher | Ballotpedia | August 28, 2024
"Voters Will Decide 11 Abortion-Related Ballot Measures in 10 States." Overview of the final 2024 ballot landscape.
| Jackie Mitchell | Ballotpedia | August 21, 2024
"With a Right-to-Abortion Initiative in Montana, Nine States Will Vote on Abortion-Related Measures." Documents continued expansion of direct-democracy contests following Dobbs.
| Nicole Fisher | Ballotpedia | August 14, 2024
"With Certifications in Arizona and Missouri, Voters in Eight States Will Decide on Abortion." Provides campaign, financing and state-policy context.
| Nicole Fisher | Ballotpedia | July 31, 2024
"Voters in Six States Will Be Deciding on Abortion in 2024." Tracks qualification of abortion-rights and abortion-restriction initiatives.
| Nicole Fisher | Ballotpedia | June 5, 2024
"Voters in 12 States May Decide on Abortion in 2024." Updated status of state abortion ballot campaigns.
| Nicole Fisher | Ballotpedia | April 24, 2024
"Voters in 12 States May Decide on Abortion in 2024." Tracks proposed state constitutional amendments and personhood-related initiatives.
| Ballotpedia Staff | Ballotpedia | April 5, 2024
"Voters in Florida, Maryland, and New York to Decide on Abortion Ballot Measures." Early overview of the unusually large number of abortion initiatives proposed for 2024.
Medication Abortion and the Courts
| Supreme Court of the United States | Supreme Court | 2024
"FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine — Docket." Primary court materials concerning challenges to federal regulation of mifepristone.
| Supreme Court of the United States | Supreme Court | June 13, 2024
"FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine." Supreme Court opinion holding that the plaintiffs lacked standing to challenge FDA actions concerning mifepristone.
"The Availability and Use of Medication Abortion." Reviews mifepristone, telehealth, state restrictions, shield laws and federal regulation.
| Guttmacher Institute | Guttmacher Institute | 2024
"Medication Abortion." Overview of medication abortion use and policy.
| John Kruzel and Andrew Chung | Reuters | June 13, 2024
"U.S. Supreme Court Preserves Broad Access to Abortion Pill." Reports the Supreme Court's unanimous standing decision.
| PBS NewsHour / Associated Press | PBS | June 13, 2024
"Supreme Court Preserves Access to Abortion Pill Mifepristone." News analysis of the ruling.
| SCOTUSblog | SCOTUSblog | 2024
"FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine." Case summary and filings.
| Christianity Today | Christianity Today | June 2024
"Supreme Court Rejects Abortion Pill Challenge." Conservative Christian analysis of the standing ruling.
| John Kruzel and Andrew Chung | Reuters | March 25, 2024
"Abortion Pill Case Tests Supreme Court's Willingness to Curb FDA Power." Pre-argument overview of the litigation.
| Supreme Court of the United States | Supreme Court | March 26, 2024
Oral argument transcript in FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine.
Emergency Abortion, State Bans, and Medical Exceptions
| Supreme Court of the United States | Supreme Court | 2024
"Moyle v. United States — Docket." Primary material concerning the interaction between state abortion bans and federal requirements for emergency medical care.
| Supreme Court of the United States | Supreme Court | June 27, 2024
"Moyle v. United States." Supreme Court disposition allowing emergency abortions to resume in Idaho while litigation continued.
"EMTALA, Emergency Care, and Abortion." Explains federal emergency-treatment law and conflicts with state abortion bans.
| Andrew Chung and John Kruzel | Reuters | June 27, 2024
"U.S. Supreme Court Allows Emergency Abortions in Idaho for Now." Reports the Court's dismissal of the case as improvidently granted.
| PBS NewsHour / Associated Press | PBS | June 27, 2024
"Supreme Court Allows Emergency Abortions in Idaho for Now." Explains the dispute over EMTALA.
| SCOTUSblog | SCOTUSblog | 2024
"Moyle v. United States." Case summary and legal documents.
"What Is EMTALA?" Civil-liberties explanation of emergency abortion protections.
| U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops | USCCB | 2024
"Bishops Support Idaho Law Protecting Unborn Children." Presents Catholic institutional arguments concerning emergency abortion and federal law.
| Supreme Court of the United States | Supreme Court | April 24, 2024
Oral argument transcript in Moyle v. United States.
| Andrew Chung and John Kruzel | Reuters | April 24, 2024
"U.S. Supreme Court Weighs Idaho Abortion Ban, Emergency Medical Care." Reports arguments over conflicts between Idaho law and EMTALA.
Christian Nationalism, Gender, Family, and Reproduction
| Alessandro Terenzoni | Americans United | July 2, 2026
"Religious Liberty Commission Draft Report Advances Christian Nationalism." Critical analysis of contemporary conservative religious-liberty policy, including reproductive issues.
| Sabene Rizvi | Americans United | March 4, 2026
"Blurred Lines: Church-State Separation, Indiana's RFRA, and the Politics of Belief." Reviews post-Dobbs religious-freedom lawsuits challenging abortion bans.
| Freedom From Religion Foundation | FFRF | 2025
"Abortion Bans and Christian Nationalism." Secularist analysis connecting reproductive restrictions to Christian-nationalist ideology.
| Americans United | Americans United | 2025
"Christian Nationalism and Reproductive Rights." Discusses abortion, contraception and church-state concerns.
| PRRI | Public Religion Research Institute | 2024
"Gender, Family, and Christian Nationalism." Survey material examining gender roles, family policy and Christian-nationalist attitudes.
| Freedom From Religion Foundation | FFRF | June 15, 2023
"'Stem the Tide of White Christian Nationalism.'" Secularist advocacy linking abortion bans with broader concerns about Christian nationalism and church-state separation.
| Scholars | Politics & Gender | 2023
"Christian Nationalism and Gender Politics." Examines traditional gender ideology and political attitudes associated with Christian nationalism.
| Scholars | Sociology of Religion | 2021
Research on Christian nationalism, gender roles and patriarchal family ideology.
| Scholars | Sociology of Religion | 2020
Study examining Christian nationalism and attitudes toward gender and family.
Abortion, National Identity, and Comparative Politics
| Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | June 20, 2024
"Views of Abortion Around the World." Comparative evidence on abortion attitudes across countries and religious contexts.
| Scholars | Politics and Religion | 2023
Comparative analysis of religion, national identity and abortion policy.
| Scholars | Religion, State & Society | 2022
Research examining religion, nationalism, gender and reproductive policy in comparative perspective.
Comparative discussion of nationalism, religion and abortion politics.
| Scholars | Comparative Politics | 2020
Research examining religious identity and reproductive-policy differences across national settings.
Current Political and Institutional Developments
| Americans United | Americans United | current
"Reproductive Rights." Ongoing church-state litigation and advocacy concerning abortion and religious freedom.
| Family Research Council | Family Research Council | current
"Life and Human Dignity." Ongoing conservative Christian policy materials concerning abortion.
| National Right to Life | National Right to Life | current
National anti-abortion organization's ongoing policy, legislative and legal materials.
| Guttmacher Institute | Guttmacher Institute | current
"Abortion in the United States." Ongoing data and policy tracking.
Women's health policy research including abortion law, medication abortion and state policy.
| Society of Family Planning | #WeCount | June 23, 2025
"#WeCount: April 2022–December 2024." Provides empirical evidence for analyzing how abortion provision changed following Dobbs rather than assuming that statutory bans directly equal abortion incidence.
| Samuel Alito et al. | Supreme Court of the United States | June 24, 2022
"Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization." Primary-source majority, concurring and dissenting opinions ending federal constitutional protection for abortion under Roe and Casey.
