Date of Completion
2025
Document Type
Honors College Thesis
Department
Political Science
Thesis Type
College of Arts and Science Honors, Honors College
First Advisor
Alex Garlick, Ph.D.
Keywords
Abortion, Direct Democracy, Public Opinion, Ballot Measure, State Legislature, Dobbs
Abstract
Why did ballot questions about abortion appear in some states but not others after the overturning of Roe v. Wade? This project on the intersection of abortion and direct democracy in the post-Dobbs period looked at the role of institutions, public opinion, and party control of government as explanations for these questions. The research finds when there is a direct democracy mechanism in a state that allows for a ballot question to occur, that abortion questions are more likely in states with Democratic legislatures and when public opinion is more narrowly supportive of abortion legality.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Raymond, Shelby, "Abortion on the Ballot: Examining the Intersection of Abortion and Direct Democracy in the Post-Roe Period" (2025). UVM Patrick Leahy Honors College Senior Theses. 750.
https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/hcoltheses/750