State legislative voting patterns on abortion restrictions in Louisiana

The Louisiana state legislature passed the nation's most restrictive anti-abortion law in 1991. Policy dimension theory suggests that legislative voting on noneconomic social issues such as abortion policy often reflects the interest group and grassroots pressures from the constituency. Probit analysis results indicate that legislators who voted against the anti-abortion legislation aremuch more likely to represent large-city districts than rural, small-town, or suburban districts. The primacy of the urban-nonurban distinction is further explained by religious, racial, and gender factors, as well as legislators' general social policy positions.