Woman vs. Fetus: Frame Transformation and Intramovement Dynamics in the Pro-Life Movement

Abstract

What happens when insiders challenge a movement's dominant frame? To advance knowledge regarding how movement factions respond to frame transformation proposals, this paper examines an attempt to transform the central framing of the American pro-life movement. Over the past four decades, the American pro-life movement primarily employed a fetal rights frame. Yet a growing contingent of the pro-life movement is attempting to replace fetal-centric rhetoric with a frame claiming abortion is harmful to women. Using a combination of focus groups, interviews, and participant observation, this paper explains why this faction is challenging hegemonic pro-life framing and how more traditional pro-life actors respond. I argue that while ideological and organizational concerns often make transformation of a movement's central framing unlikely, if intramovement challengers can persuasively highlight the resonant appeal of challenging frames, movement colleagues are often willing to partially accommodate transformation requests by responding with frame extension.