Political Science, Department of
First Advisor
Alice Kang
Date of this Version
4-2024
Citation
A thesis presented to the faculty of the Graduate College at the University of Nebraska in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Master of Arts
Major: Political Science
Under the supervision of Professor Alice Kang
Lincoln, Nebraska, April 2024
Abstract
What predicts the adoption of informed consent laws for pelvic exams within the United States? As of January 2023, 22 states have adopted informed consent laws for pelvic examinations on women, with eleven being under Democratic control, six being Republican control, and five with divided control between the legislature and gubernatorial level at the time of adoption. Little attention, however, has been given to women’s health mandates outside the issue of abortion and to variation among state partisan adoption regarding informed consent for pelvic exams. This paper examines the impact of partisanship, the percentage of women in the legislature, and the sponsorship of legislation by women. I present an original dataset of state-level informed consent laws for pelvic exams, followed by applying a Cox proportional hazard model to study informed consent implementation, as well as a descriptive analysis of the influence of women and partisan sponsorship. This study offers insight into the impact of women in passing women’s health mandates by examining the influence of women legislators and partisanship on women’s healthcare initiatives outside of abortion.
Advisor: Alice Kang
Included in
Bioethics and Medical Ethics Commons, Gender and Sexuality Commons, Health Law and Policy Commons, Health Policy Commons, Human Rights Law Commons, Law and Gender Commons, Legislation Commons, Patient Safety Commons, Political Science Commons, Politics and Social Change Commons, Reproductive and Urinary Physiology Commons, Social Justice Commons, Women's Health Commons
Comments
Copyright 2024, Sophia Stockham. Used by permission