The Pro-Life Pregnancy Help Movement

“It Wasn’t Very Public-Clinicy”: Client Experiences at Faith-Based Pregnancy Centers

“…Interviewees in this study did not characterize their experiences at pregnancy centers as manipulative or controlling and would recommend centers to others in their position. Extant studies find that centers' focus on women and material support of clients increases their legitimacy among state actors and nonsecular supporters (Hussey 2020;Kelly 2012), enabling them to "represent an arm of the state" and embed themselves among social service providers (Kissling et al 2022). The current study found that emotional care offers a similar and powerful pathway to legitimacy among clients.…”

Abortion as a sociological case

“…Antiabortion members of the pregnancy help movement (a thread of the prolife movement sometimes called the crisis pregnancy movement 93 ), for example, have grappled with whether providing free material support to low-income pregnant women who are not considering abortion is consistent with their mission to end abortion. 94 Abortion rights advocates, meanwhile, have developed abortion funds, nonprofit organizations that give grants to offset the costs of abortion. 95 With local, regional, and national funds, low-income abortion seekers can cobble together resources to pay for their abortion and cover ancillary costs such as transportation and accommodations.…”

Who Substitutes Service for Politics? Assessing the Roles of Youth and Partisan Alienation in Americans’ Forms of Civic Engagement

“…One type has contrasted what were until recently (American National Election Studies 2021; Candid 2022) stagnant or declining rates of participation in elections and campaigns, political parties, and mass-membership groups with then-high and perhaps increasing rates of volunteerism (Bennett 1998;Macedo et al 2005;Mann 1999;Shea 2015;Zukin et al 2006). Qualitative studies have highlighted volunteers and other community participants who frame their action as a route to change that is different from and perhaps superior to political activism (Blackstone 2004;2007;Bilous 2014;Hussey 2020;Wuthnow 1998;Youngs 2019; Zuckerman 2021)-if not its own "alternative politics" (Longo 2004, 63). Scholars have also identified conditions where voluntary sector participation fails to encourage-and may even undermine-political involvement (Atkinson and Fowler 2014;Eliasoph 2013;Musick and Wilson 2008;Theiss-Morse and Hibbing 2005).…”

“…The first of two prominent narratives about why citizens address problems through service and civic associations highlights alienation from politics. Citizens tend to associate politics with conflict and civic associations or service with cooperation, typically preferring the latter to the former (Hays 2007;Hussey 2020;Macedo et al 2005;Theiss-Morse and Hibbing 2005;Walker 2000). Scholars further observe among volunteers a tendency to associate politics with gridlock and empty or divisive words, while professing to achieve through service greater productivity, fulfillment, and solidarity with fellow citizens (Eliasoph 1998;Hussey 2020;Longo 2004;Wuthnow 1998).…”

“…Citizens tend to associate politics with conflict and civic associations or service with cooperation, typically preferring the latter to the former (Hays 2007;Hussey 2020;Macedo et al 2005;Theiss-Morse and Hibbing 2005;Walker 2000). Scholars further observe among volunteers a tendency to associate politics with gridlock and empty or divisive words, while professing to achieve through service greater productivity, fulfillment, and solidarity with fellow citizens (Eliasoph 1998;Hussey 2020;Longo 2004;Wuthnow 1998). Alienated or repelled from the conflict and stalemate they see in politics, citizens seek other outlets for their care about public problems (Chou et al 2017;Longo 2004;Wuthnow 1998;Zuckerman 2021), finding in the voluntary sector "a refuge from (and alternative to)" politics (Galston and Levine 1998, 36).…”