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Reasons for Abortion: Religion, Religiosity/Spirituality and Attitudes of Male Secondary School Youth in South Africa

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Abstract

This study focused on the relationship between religion, religiosity/spirituality (R/S), and attitudes of a sample of South African male secondary school youth toward women’s rights to legal abortion in different situations. We distributed 400 self-administered questionnaires assessing the main variables (attitudes toward reasons for abortion and R/S) to the target sample in six different secondary schools in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The responses of a final sample of 327 learners were then analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software. The findings revealed that religion and R/S play a role in the youths’ attitudes toward abortion. While the Hindu subsample indicated higher overall support across the different scenarios, the Muslim subsample reported greater disapproval than the other groups on ‘Elective reasons’ and in instances of ‘Objection by significant others.’ The Christian youth had the most negative attitudes to abortion for ‘Traumatic reasons’ and ‘When women’s health/life’ was threatened. Across the sample, higher R/S levels were linked with more negative attitudes toward reasons for abortion.

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  1. Discipline of Psychology, School of Applied Human Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa

    Lebohang Selebalo-Bereng & Cynthia Joan Patel

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  1. Lebohang Selebalo-Bereng
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  2. Cynthia Joan Patel
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Correspondence to Cynthia Joan Patel.

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Selebalo-Bereng, L., Patel, C.J. Reasons for Abortion: Religion, Religiosity/Spirituality and Attitudes of Male Secondary School Youth in South Africa. J Relig Health 58, 2298–2312 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-017-0547-1

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