Abortion Attitudes: An Overview of Demographic and Ideological Differences

Despite being a defining issue in the culture war, political psychology of abortion attitudes remains poorly understood. We address this oversight by reviewing existing literature and integrating new analyses several large-scale, cross-sectional, longitudinal datasets to identify demographic ideological correlates attitudes. Our review indicate that support is increasing modestly over time both United States New Zealand. also find plurality respondents (43.8%) are consistently “pro-choice,” whereas 14.8% “pro-life,” across various elective traumatic scenarios. then show age, religiosity, conservatism correlate negatively, Openness Experience positively, with support. heterosexual couples further reveal women's men's religiosity decrease their romantic partner's Noting inconsistent gender differences toward abortion, we discuss impact traditional gender-role sexism on conclude that, rather than misogyny, benevolent sexism—the belief women should be cherished protected—best explains opposition abortion. thus provides comprehensive overview variables underly and, hence, broader war.