# Gendered Divides in Online Discussions about Reproductive Rights

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.05443 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.05443/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 8 of its 46 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 7 Jul 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 8 of 8)

- [SpanEmo: Casting Multi-label Emotion Classification as Span-prediction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2101.10038/) (2021)
- [#RoeOverturned: Twitter Dataset on the Abortion Rights Controversy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.01439/) (2023)
- [Pandemic Culture Wars: Partisan Differences in the Moral Language of COVID-19 Discussions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.18533/) (2023)
- [An Open-Source Cultural Consensus Approach to Name-Based Gender Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.01714/) (2022)
- [Polarized Online Discourse on Abortion: Frames and Hostile Expressions among Liberals and Conservatives](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.16831/) (2023)
- [Dynamics of Affective Polarization: From Consensus to Partisan Divides](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.16940/) (2024)
- [In-Group Love, Out-Group Hate: A Framework to Measure Affective Polarization via Contentious Online Discussions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.14414/) (2024)
- [Analyzing the Stance of Facebook Posts on Abortion Considering State-level Health and Social Compositions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.09889/) (2023)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The U.S. Supreme Court's 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization marked a turning point in the national debate over reproductive rights. While the ideological divide over abortion is well documented, less is known about how gender and local sociopolitical contexts interact to shape public discourse. Drawing on nearly 10 million abortion-related posts on X (formerly Twitter) from users with inferred gender, ideology and location, we show that gender significantly moderates abortion attitudes and emotional expression, particularly in conservative regions, and independently of ideology. This creates a gender gap in abortion attitudes that grows more pronounced in conservative regions. The leak of the Dobbs draft opinion further intensified online engagement, disproportionately mobilizing pro-abortion women in areas where access was under threat. These findings reveal that abortion discourse is not only ideologically polarized but also deeply structured by gender and place, highlighting the central role of identity in shaping political expression during moments of institutional disruption.