MA-IS ePortfolio

Abstract

The Satanic Temple (TST)’s Religious Reproductive Rights campaign aims to protect TST members who have decided to end a pregnancy from state-imposed restrictions which may impede their religious right to access safe abortion services and to practice TST’s religious Abortion Ritual.  This study will analyse how TST’s Religious Reproductive Rights campaign is represented by TST and in news media reports in the context of the abortion debate in the United States.  The issue of abortion access and reproductive rights is particularly significant and timely in light of the recent overturn of the Roe v. Wade decision by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) which severely restricted or eliminated access to safe, legal abortion services in many states.  TST has put forward religious exemption claims under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and the success of their campaign and legal actions may be impacted by the discourse disseminated in news media coverage.  This study will use two primary research methods, Content Analysis and Discourse Analysis, to identify key themes present in representations of the campaign by TST and news media and will identify ideas and arguments surrounding these themes from the perspective of each side.  Diagramming will then be used as an activation tool to further reflect upon the research findings and discover ways in which the results may be used to frame the rhetoric surrounding the campaign and reveal potential impacts on policy and legal outcomes.  Given the recency of TST’s Reproductive Rights Campaign, this study will serve to provide important analysis of a timely and emerging discourse.

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References

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Greaves, L. (2022b, June 23). Supplement: The Email & the Reply. Lucien Greaves (Patreon).

Greaves, L. (2022c, June 26). Religious Reproductive Rights in the Press. Lucien Greaves Podcast (Patreon).

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Tonkiss, F. (2018). Discourse Analysis. In C. Seale (Ed.), Researching Society and Culture (4th ed., pp. 447–492). SAGE.

Notes

This post is the abstract of the Research Question, Proposal, and Reflection assignment I submitted in Week 15 of MAIS 602 Doing Interdisciplinary Research, Athabasca University (Dr. Nisha Nath, May 2022).

Featured Image: Jno.skinner, Satanic sign from a rally against Texas SB 8, cropped, CC BY-SA 4.0.