Abortion Attitudes in Post-Roe America

• In Event: Religion and Political Behavior

Abstract

After the 2022 Midterm Election and with the fast-approaching 2024 Presidential Election, interest in public opinion toward abortion post-Dobbs is heightened. Prior work indicates that racial resentment is a significant determinant of attitudes on a wide range of high-profile issues in American politics such as aid to the poor and healthcare (Gilens 1995; McCabe 2019) while sexism is a significant predictor of support for equal pay and affirmative action (Fraser et al. 2015; Gothreau et al. 2022). Utilizing 2022 American National Election Study data and an original national survey data set, we investigate how racial resentment and sexism intersect with Evangelicalism as determinants of abortion attitudes post-Dobbs. Although recent research has shown a relationship between sexism and abortion attitudes, the moderating role of Evangelicalism has remained uninvestigated. Moreover, this paper provides a deep dive into the role of a relatively new determinant of abortion attitudes in contemporary America–attitudes on race. We find that sexism continues to be a predictor of abortion attitudes post-Dobbs and that racial attitudes have become strongly related to abortion attitudes. Evangelicalism meaningfully contributes to the connections both racism and sexism have with abortion attitudes. Racial attitudes and hostile sexism are correlated with views on abortion for all Americans, not just highly religious, conservative Republicans. The primarily liberal racial and sexist attitudes of Democrats are strongly correlated with their pro-choice views and the higher levels of racial resentment and hostile sexism held by Republicans correlate with their pro-life views. This is true for evangelicals and non-evangelicals alike. As of today, abortion is not alone in being a highly racialized issue; attitudes on race are strongly correlated with almost all the key issues in American politics. Where abortion attitudes are distinctive from attitudes on other policy issues is in having very strong religious, and more specifically evangelical determinants.

Authors

• Laurel Elder, Hartwick College

• Steven Greene, North Carolina State University

• Mary Kate Lizotte, Augusta University