Attitudes toward abortion, religion, and party affiliation among college students

Abstract

Public attitudes toward abortion have long been an issue in American political debates. Theoretical understanding of influences on abortion attitudes may assist researchers in determining contributors of the attribution. Accordingly, this study administered a 40-item abortion opinion survey to 396 college students at a Midwestern university to determine potential factors correlated with abortion attitudes. Several factors such as religious involvement, knowledge of someone who has an abortion, and one's definition as to when life begins were correlated with abortion attitudes. Furthermore, Democrats reported stronger pro-choice views than Republicans did. Similarly, Liberals were more pro-choice oriented than Conservatives. Although causal relationships were not directly explored, theoretical explanations and support provide for a thorough understanding of potential factors of abortion attitude formation and a preliminary model. Future implications are also discussed.

Trends in Abortion Attitudes by Race and Gender: A Reassessment Over a Four Decade Period

“…This is clear in the media, as political battles are fought publicly around this issue, and is also supported by research (Hess & Rueb, 2005;Jelen & Wilcox, 2003). Until recently, education was consistently related to increased support for abortion (Gay & Lynxwiler, 1999), and women's attitudes appear more affected by education than men's (Bolzendahl & Myers, 2004).…”

“…Increased religiosity (Bahr & Marcos, 2003;Bolzendahl & Myers, 2004;Gay & Lynxwiler, 1999;Hess & Rueb, 2005;Sahar & Karasawa, 2005) and church attendance (Scott, 1998;Sullins, 1999) are related to decreased support for abortion. This relationship is found in studies of adolescent males (Boggess & Bradner, 2000), and individuals of both sexes who are Hispanic (Ellison, Echevarria, & Smith, 2005), African American (Clawson & Clark, 2003;Simien & Clawson, 2004), and college students (Misra & Hohman, 2000).…”

The timing of abortions, births, and union dissolutions in Finland

“…The characteristics explaining, for instance, the unobserved heterogeneity in the likelihood of abortion may include such things as personality traits, which have been shown to be associated with the planning status of pregnancies (Berg et al 2013); negative attitudes towards abortion, as they may lead to not terminating a pregnancy even if it is unwanted (Johnson-Hanks et al 2011); religiosity, which has been associated with negative attitudes towards abortion in the United States (Ellison, Echevarría, and Smith 2005;Hess and Rueb 2005); and preferred family size, as women with a large preferred family size may be less likely to terminate an unintended pregnancy than women who want to restrict their family size at lower levels, although this only applies if the preference remains unchanged over time. Longitudinal studies in the United States show that most women's fertility preferences stay constant over several years (Heaton, Jacobson, and Holland 1999;White and McQuillan 2006).…”

“…It may be that religious women, who are more likely to express negative attitudes towards abortion (Ellison, Echevarría, and Smith 2005;Hess and Rueb 2005), are also less likely to approve of divorce, making them less likely to experience either of these events. Perhaps the personality traits associated with the planning status of pregnancies (Berg et al 2013) can also be associated with the likelihood of union dissolution.…”

“…This implies that due to unobserved time-invariant characteristics, women who had an above average risk of giving birth had a below average risk of abortion. Such characteristics may include, for example, religious beliefs, which are often associated with negative attitudes towards abortion (Ellison, Echevarría, and Smith 2005;Hess and Rueb 2005), and preference for high fertility (Frejka and Westoff 2007;McQuillan 2004).…”