ABSTRACT
This study explores whether and how African American women state lawmakers demonstrate distinctive legislative behavior from their Black male colleagues on abortion policy. Drawing upon data obtained from roll call voting, the findings indicate that Black male lawmakers are just as likely as Black women to oppose abortion restrictive legislation. Perhaps most interesting, however, is that the gendered variability in legislative behavior between Black female and male state lawmakers is limited to their agenda setting behavior on abortion policy. The study found significant evidence that Black women in the statehouse were more likely to sponsor legislation and resolutions that sought to safeguard abortion, expand reproductive health services, and express opposition to abortion restrictive legislative proposals, in particular ways that are not consistently accounted for when analyzing bill sponsorship of their Black male co-partisans. Further empirical investigation will likely uncover whether the legislative behavior of Black state lawmakers in Georgia demonstrated in this study are an anomaly in the region or reflective of a broader trend that is unaccounted for in studies of southern, Black lawmakers’ legislative agendas.
