Analyzing U.S. Senators’ Abortion Policy Discussions on Twitter
Introduction. Social media platforms like Twitter/X have become vital arenas for public debate. This article explores the intriguing world of US senators’ Twitter debates on abortion law and policy in 2022. Our research explores the sentiments expressed by senators from both major parties, aiming to discover the underlying narratives and their impact on public opinion.
Research Motivation. Abortion policy has long been a contentious issue in the US, deeply connected with party affiliation and public sentiment. This study investigates the political conversations surrounding #abortion on Twitter, focusing on the tweets from US senators. We sought to answer key questions: What do US senators claim about abortion policy? What sensitive connotations emerge from their words on Twitter?
Our hypotheses were straightforward:
- Democrats would differ in their sentiments from Republicans concerning abortion topics.
- Democrats are likely to speak positively about abortion rights, while Republicans are generally opposed.
These hypotheses are grounded in research by Killian and Wilcox (2008) and recent findings from the Pew Research Center.
Data. Our data sample comprised tweets by US senators between May 24th and July 24th, 2022, using the Twitter API v2 tools. We employed vaderSentiment for sentiment analysis, focusing on keywords related to abortion and reproductive rights. The workflow included literature research, identifying relevant Twitter handles, data collection, and sentiment score calculations. Key terms included “abortion,” “roe v wade,” “pro-choice,” and more.
Results. From our data set of 1331 tweets by 81 senators, we observed a significant difference in sentiment scores between Democrats and Republicans. Democrats posted 1008 tweets, Republicans 318, and Independents 5. Sentiment analysis revealed that Democrats generally expressed more positive sentiments towards abortion rights, while Republicans were predominantly negative.
Key political events influenced tweet volumes and sentiments. For instance, the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade on June 24th and President Biden’s executive order on July 7th marked peaks in Twitter activity as you might see from the plot.
Research Findings. Our analysis indicated that both positive and negative attitudes around #abortion were motivated by various subtopics. Republicans typically discussed abortion negatively, whereas Democrats focused on the negative implications of restricting abortion rights. The significant words used by each party provided insights into their agendas.
Research Limitations. However, our study faced several limitations. We lacked data for Nebraska and Ohio, and it was challenging to determine the exact context in which sentiments were expressed. These gaps made it difficult to pinpoint specific subtopics of the abortion debate.
Conclusion. Our research sheds light on the polarized nature of abortion policy debates among US senators on Twitter. By examining the sentiments and narratives of both parties, we gain valuable insights into the dynamics of political discourse in a highly polarized society.
Reference:
Killian, M., & Wilcox, C. (2008). Do abortion attitudes lead to party switching?. Political Research Quarterly, 61(4), 561–573.
About author: I am currently an MS student in the Social Data Science program at CEU. This article originated from collaborative work with Martin Faschingbauer, Olefir Nikita, and Muhammad Zahidul Islam Miaji during the Summer Institutes in Computational Social Science (SICSS), Aachen — Graz in 2022. After taking a course in Natural Language Processing for Machine Learning class at CEU, I thought it would be great to present our research in the form of an article!
If you have any questions, please feel free to drop me an email, cheers!
