With increasingly frequent emergencies related to pandemics, climate change, or any other as yet unforeseen disaster, it is imperative to develop our understanding of how opportunistic legislation and policy grabs may appear even in democracies. Circumventing a lengthy process of public debate and government regulation, declaration of emergency may be conducive to such opportunism. Underlying mechanisms may involve national interest groups, whereby early in the pandemic a group quickly develops a messaging strategy focused on broad public health concerns. This strategy is then implemented by state affiliates lobbying local officials and mobilizing their supporters to push executive branch officials to effectuate restrictions. We examine state-level abortion restrictions during the outbreak of COVID-19. Our Qualitative Comparative Analyses indicate that at least in the political context of reproductive rights and under the emergency of COVID-19, it was level of emergency, levels of religiosity in the state and Republican dominance in government that strongly predicted the likelihood of opportunistic legislation.

中文翻译：

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自然紧急情况下的机会主义立法：在 COVID-19 期间夺取民主国家的政府权力

随着与流行病、气候变化或任何其他不可预见的灾难有关的紧急情况越来越频繁，我们必须加深对即使在民主国家也可能出现机会主义立法和政策攫取的理解。宣布紧急状态可以避开漫长的公开辩论和政府监管过程，可能会助长这种机会主义。潜在机制可能涉及国家利​​益集团，在大流行早期，一个集团迅速制定了针对广泛公共卫生问题的信息传递策略。然后，州属机构游说地方官员并动员其支持者推动行政部门官员实施限制，从而实施这一策略。我们研究了 COVID-19 爆发期间各州的堕胎限制。我们的定性比较分析表明，至少在生殖权利的政治背景下以及在 COVID-19 的紧急情况下，紧急程度、国家的宗教信仰程度以及共和党在政府中的主导地位强烈预测了机会主义立法的可能性。