Received September 9, 2019, Accepted for publication March 12, 2020, Published March 23, 2020
Abstract
The growing ideological divide between political and religious liberals and conservatives is a popular topic among the media and scholarly research. This division is never more evident than when looking at the perceptions of abortion. Using pooled data from the General Social Survey (GSS), this study particularly examines attitudes from 1972 to 2016 towards rape-related abortions, a topic less studied. Given the circumstances behind the pregnancy that led to the request for an abortion, this paper assesses whether such circumstances reduce the ideological divide separating the political and religious conservatives and liberals relative to abortions in general. Furthermore, we examine shifts across conservative and liberal subgroups to assess if the divide is stable or if it is increasing over time by one or both of the respective groups. Our findings suggest a political and religious attitudinal gap exists between general abortions and rape-related abortions. We also find that the divide is growing over time, and it is being impacted to a greater extent by an increase in opposition among conservative respondents, while moderate and liberal respondents remain stable. Theoretically, these findings are further discussed within the broader socio-political landscape.
Keywords: Abortion, Rape, Polarization, Attitudes, Women
