“When Pro-Life is Anti-Life” : A Study of American Abortion Discourse on Reddit

Sammanfattning

Abstract The purpose of this bachelor’s thesis is to analyze how pro-choice abortion discourse is constructed as a counteracting discourse to the pro-life discourse on social media in the American context. The thesis is a qualitative study that applied Norman Fairclough’s three-step Critical Discourse Analysis as the method. The pro-choice discourse reframes abortion in three main ways: by using language that discusses abortion in a medical context instead of a moral one, placing women at the center of abortion discussions, and specifying that abortion is about women's right to bodily autonomy. The pro-choice community identifies itself as advocates for women’s bodily autonomy and distances itself from the pro-life discourse. Lastly, the pro-choice discourse challenges and criticizes the powerful institutions behind the pro-life discourse, such as the Church, the Republican Party, and the Patriarchy that currently have significant political influence over American society. The pro-choice discourse is an area of study that is currently underresearched. Discourses are not only perceptions of reality expressed through written language, but they also carry significant influence that affects power dynamics in society, and lead to consequences that affect real people.