Opposing Abortion Groups Frame Pandemic as Both Threat and Opportunity

Insights from the Field

Crisis exploitation

Twitter data

Abortion advocacy

Framing analysis

Exploiting a Crisis: Abortion Activism and the COVID-19 Pandemic was authored by Kate Hunt. It was published by Cambridge in POP in 2022.

This paper examines how abortion advocacy organizations navigated the COVID-19 pandemic on social media.

Crisis Exploitation Theory & Discursive Opportunity Structures

The author tests whether SMOs involved in abortion debates respond to crises similarly to political elites, using Twitter data from multiple countries.

Methodology

Analyzing over 12,000 tweets from four country-specific abortion-related accounts during the pandemic period.

Findings

• Anti-abortion groups occasionally viewed crisis as an opportunity

• Pro-abortion rights organizations also framed COVID-19 as a threat/opportunity

• Responses revealed nuanced disruptions to typical SMO strategies

Significance

The study demonstrates how social media platforms can reshape political discourse during global health emergencies.