American abortion culture wars as religious populism : "truth" and "fight for truth" as floating signifiers

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Oh, Dayei (2025) American abortion culture wars as religious populism : "truth" and "fight for truth" as floating signifiers. Populism, 8 (1). pp. 16-52. ISSN 2588-8072 (https://doi.org/10.1163/25888072-bja10070)

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Abstract

This paper explores the American abortion culture wars through the lens of religious populism, focusing on online discourse of the Christian pro-life confederation, Personhood Alliance. Drawing on Laclaudian post-foundationalist theories, the paper conceptualizes culture wars as a populist logic of meaning-making, where the floating signifier “truth” is central to mobilizing support and constructing Us-Them boundaries. The analysis identifies two key floating meanings of “truth”: restoring divine, cultural, and scientific truth about personhood, and battling the perceived conspiracies of the liberal abortion establishment. Hybrid media ecologies provide a controlled space for the movement to disseminate narratives circumventing platform moderation. The movement’s affective Us-Them construction portrays “Us” as righteous truth-seekers and saviours of the marginalized, while “Them” is cast as a corrupt liberal elite deceiving and exploiting the marginalised. This affective dichotomy expands abortion culture wars beyond the Christian pro-life base, inviting marginalized groups to join the fight against the establishment.

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