Abstract:
This quantitative study investigates the research question, “What economic, political, and cultural factors explain the voting behavior of Georgia House Bill 481?” Georgia House Bill 481 (HB 481) is a proposed anti-abortion act that would ban abortion access beyond six weeks with minimal exceptions in the state of Georgia. This study thoroughly observes eleven independent variables: party ID, race, gender, religion, age, MSA, marital status, parental status, the familial status of daughters, the parental status of sons, and the branch of the Georgia state legislature. The dependent variable utilized in this research is the individual votes submitted by each Georgia state legislator on Georgia House Bill 481. Correlation analysis and eleven cross-tabulations describe the relationship each independent variable has with the dependent variable. The cross-tabulation analyses show that seven of the eleven independent variables are statistically significant. Party ID, race, and gender are the most reliable predictors of legislative voting behavior on HB 481.