Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

Spring 5-4-2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

May 2026

Department

Comparative Studies Program

College Granting Degree

Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters

Department Granting Degree

Comparative Studies Program

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Angela D. Nichols

Abstract

This project examines the intersection of religion and politics in the United States, particularly concerning Christian Nationalism. Existing scholarship has linked the religio-political ideology to several culturally relevant issues, including xenophobia and nativism, racism, homophobia and transphobia, and anti-vaccine rhetoric. My dissertation continues this research by exploring the impact of Christian Nationalism on reproductive rights and, in turn, on gender equality. I assert that as the saliency of Christian Nationalism in the United States has increased, gender equality has decreased. I also argue that the higher the saliency of Christian Nationalism in an individual state, the lower the gender equality in that state. I carry out a historical analysis, using process tracing to examine how the legal and cultural norms around reproduction and reproductive rights have evolved throughout the entirety of U.S. history, as well as pinpoint the effects Christian Nationalism has had throughout that evolution, culminating in the overturning of Roe v. Wade (1973) in 2022. I also conduct a case study analysis of four states, comparing their current levels of support for Christian Nationalism as well as their state constitutions and histories regarding reproductive rights. My findings demonstrate that reproductive rights have been at the center of the rise of modern Christian Nationalism and that Donald Trump was instrumental in achieving the movement’s goal of overturning Roe by specifically nominating anti-abortion justices to the Supreme Court. My findings also indicate that the key difference between how individual states have handled and continue to handle reproductive rights lies not in their political leaning or level of religiosity alone, but rather in a combination of the two in the form of support for Christian Nationalism.

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