Since
Roe v. Wade, most states have passed laws either restricting or further protecting reproductive rights. During a wave of anti-abortion
violence in the early 1990s, several states also enacted legislation protecting abortion clinics, staff, and patients. One
hypothesis drawn from the theoretical literature predicts that these laws provide a deterrent effect and thus fewer anti-abortion
crimes in states that protect clinics and reproductive rights. An alternative hypothesis drawn from the literature expects
a backlash effect from radical members of the movement and thus more crimes in states with protective legislation. We tested
these competing hypotheses by taking advantage of unique data sets that gauge the strength of laws protecting clinics and
reproductive rights and that provide self-report victimization data from clinics. Employing logistic regression and controlling
for several potential covariates, we found null effects and thus no support for either hypothesis. The null findings were
consistent across a number of different types of victimization. Our discussion contextualizes these results in terms of previous
research on crimes against abortion providers, discusses alternative explanations for the null findings, and considers the
implications for future policy development and research.
Keywords Abortion - Violence - Deterrence - Domestic terrorism - Political crime